Danny Phantom and Astro Boy Crossover
by Jaylina
Summary: Exactly as mindbending as it sounds. It figures my first fic would be a bizarre crossover... contains ongoing plot and suspense. Rated T for teenagers cursing and lots of beating up ghosts and robots.
1. Chapter 1

**Greetings. If you see any spelling or grammar errors, feel free to identify them in the reviews. If you did I would be very pleased and not offended at all.**

**Also available in part on my Deviant art. It has better formatting there. http(:/) gallery/24979568**

Notes on Setting:

For the _Danny Phantom_ universe, it's fairly simple, this just takes place after the series finishes. So yeah, Danny's identity is known, his parents know he's half ghost, and he's dating Sam. There are some things included which may not be SUPER DUPER adherent to _DP_ canon, but it's all for story purposes so don't freak if I claim Danny can't do something with his ghost powers that he did in one episode out of the series. As for the _Astro Boy_ universe— just don't even try to figure out which series it is. I took elements from the original manga, 60's black and white anime, 80's color anime, 2003 anime, and maybe even the movie and Urasawa Naoki's _Pluto_ manga. In general, you needn't worry about knowing anything about any of the _Astro Boy_ franchises, you learn about the world while Danny does. It would definitely help to have prior knowledge of _Danny Phantom_, though. No shipping except for what's canon.

Chapter 1.

Danny winced, rolled over, and fought the urge to vomit. He had been in the Ghost Zone, chasing a particularly annoying phantom, when out of nowhere he felt a gut wrenching pull followed a blinding flash of light. _Pull it together, pull it together,_ he thought. His brains felt like an egg salad sandwich that had gone through a blender. What _was_ that thing he had crashed into? It had looked like a tear in a sheet of paper… no, no, that wasn't it. Danny cringed, cradled his forehead and attempted to think.

First of all. Where was he? The air was warm, and he felt the glare of sunlight on his back. There were wood planks beneath him the air smelled strongly of dust. Slowly, corneas stinging from the light, he opened his eyes to a squint and tried to make sense of what appeared to be a collage of loose bricks and broken boards. He sat up a little and looked around, ignoring how his stomach churned at these attempts.

He was in an old, decrepit house. Light shone through the holes in the wall and shattered windows onto a warped and dusty wood floor covered in ancient water stains. He had apparently fallen through the second story, and was lying in a jumbled pile of floorboards, old furniture, and loose papers. No wonder he hurt all over.

Was he still in the Ghost Zone? _No, this is real_, he thought as the painfully bright sunlight and light breeze told him. Danny really hoped he hadn't gone through another portal, the last time that had happened… huh?

His train of thought was interrupted by the distant sound of hurried footsteps. _Oh crap!_ He tried to phase, but his stomach answered with a back flip. He desperately transformed back to human just as he heard a boy's voice call out from a connecting hallway. Danny couldn't understand a word of it, it sounded like some Asian language. Maybe… Japanese? Had he gone through a portal to Japan?

The footsteps reached the door, and a kid wearing nothing but a black Speedo and knee-high red boots bolted into the room. His eyes widened at the sight of Danny sprawled awkwardly over a pile of debris. Belting out a panicked stream of Japanese, he rushed over and grasped at Danny's hands to help him to his feet. Danny stared dazedly at the boy while he patted him down for injuries and continued to ramble.

Not finding anything, he finally stood back and addressed Danny authoritatively, a serious look in his eyes. Danny, not understanding a word of what the strange, half-naked boy had said, hopelessly replied "I'm sorry, but I don't have _any_ idea what you're saying."

To Danny's surprise, the boy glanced up and replied "English? You don't speak Japanese?"

"No," he said, looking shocked but a little relived.

"Then what on earth are you doing in an abandoned house in Japan?" the kid asked in bewilderment, waving a hand at their dusty surroundings.

"I'm not sure myself, actually," he answered truthfully.

The boy stared, but then smiled and laughed somewhat warily.

"That's a _really_ strange thing to not know! But, I need you to listen: whatever your situation may be, you need to leave this property as soon as possible. You're in danger."

_Wow. He sounds a lot older than he looks,_ Danny thought, _and he's fluent and articulate in two languages. Weird._

"Danger?" Danny asked, watching the child curiously.

"Yes, this area is currently barricaded by the Metro City police."

_There's something off about this kid, _Danny thought absentmindedly. _It's weird enough he's half naked and talks like someone twice his age, but there's something weird about his eyes and skin… he can't be a ghost. My ghost sense would have gone off ages ago._

"Barricade? Why?" he wasn't particularly worried about whatever they were barricading against. He had more than likely faced worse.

"A rogue construction robot," the boy answered.

There was a brief pause. "A robot!" Danny exclaimed.

"Yes…?" he replied slowly, unsure how to interpret this sudden outburst, "… we think it's a CPU malfunction, but he killed the rest of the worker bots on the crew. The police attempted to stop him, but he acquired one of their guns. They pursued him to this condemned city block."

Danny, suddenly more wary of his surroundings, realized how the room was oddly warm for the low angle of the sun. He ran over to the window and looked out. It was as the boy said; the block was completely broken down, with closely packed 3 story houses separated by a fence long since buried under litter and leftover construction materials. Heat and humidity hung in the air and cicadas hummed from their unseen perches in the rubble.

Was it summer? It had been February in Amity Park! Japan and the USA are both in the northern hemisphere; it technically should be winter here too! Danny frantically collected his thoughts. A robot… clearly intelligent, the boy mentioned it having a CPU and using a gun. He had gone through portals in the Ghost Zone to the past before. Had he just gone through one that led to the future? Except… Danny rubbed his forehead gingerly. It hadn't been a portal. It was a tear. A tear… a dimensional tear!

"Sir."

Danny looked up at the boy, and nearly jumped at the seriousness of his expression.

"You need to leave," he asserted, "The robot has a gun and a faulty CPU. He is he could possibly shoot and kill you, even without intention."

"Then why are _you _here, telling _me _to leave?" Danny grated.

"The police asked for my assistance."

Yes, because helping the police is just something ten year olds do. Though, if it had a gun, he should probably leave… he'd have to go ghost to avoid bullets and he didn't want to do that in front of this kid.

"LOOK OUT!"

Danny snapped his head up in time to see the huge grey mech leap out from behind of concrete blocks, holding the largest gun he had ever seen in his life. The boy snatched the back of his T-shirt and yanked him down as a spray of bullets blew holes in the remnants of the window. Danny yelled as one of them swiped him across the hip just deep enough to smart like a bastard.

"You're hurt!" the boy cried, seeing bloody fabric.

"S' only skin deep," Danny said bluntly.

The boy looked up anxiously. "Oh no, he's coming," he muttered as the crunch of unnaturally heavy footsteps drew closer.

Swiftly, he grabbed Danny's wrist and effectively dragged the floundering teenager to the far corner of room, shoving him behind a couch and then running back to the window_. What the hell is he doing?_ Danny thought, _that monster is going to flatten him! _He tried to scramble to his feet and transform, but the robot had already smashed trough the far wall like it was made of chewed-up Popsicle sticks.

The boy raised his hand and addressed the hulking machine in Japanese, a look of concern on his face. Holy crap, Danny thought in amazement, is he trying to negotiate with it?

He had at least briefly captured its attention, and it paused as the kid continued to talk gently in Japanese to the eight foot, three ton steel beast with a machine gun the size of a cannon. Unfortunately, it quickly lost interest and turned his gun on the boy. Danny's head reeled in pain from the deafening gunfire, but the boy, seemingly unfazed that a gun was being fired at him, simply leapt to the side of the bullets and continued to speak. The robot, annoyed by the dodge, cocked his gun to fire again.

A sudden flash of ferocity shot cross the kid's face, and he then proceeded to grab the 5-inch thick muzzle and rip the enormous gun out of the giant's hand.

Danny blinked.

Holy shit. Did he just see that?

The robot roared with anger and swiped a massive hand at the boy, who dodged again. Holding the weapon easily with a single hand, he quickly removed the ammo and tossed it as far behind him as possible. Grabbing the other end of the gun, he bent it clean in half and flung the folded snarl of metal effortlessly to the side. The construction bot, now thoroughly enraged by the destruction of its gun, balled a fist and attempted to smash him into the floor. The boy stepped into the oncoming attack, grabbed it at the elbow and shoulder and flipped the robot clear off the ground; driving it face-first into the floor with an impact that smashed the floorboards and made Danny's teeth rattle.

Before the robot even had time to move, he scrambled up onto the steel monster, flipped up a small hatch, and pressed a few buttons. The giant machine pushed an arm on the floor, attempting to get up, then gave a dying wheeze and collapsed back down, the kid still on its back.

The boy stood up slowly, looking sadly the 5 ton metal beast he had just thrown into the ground like a discarded coat. "He wouldn't even talk to me. What on earth would make a high functioning robot act like that?" He hopped off the robot's massive steel back and walked over to Danny. "Are you ok sir?" he said, reaching out his hand to the dazed teen.

"How did you do that?" Danny stuttered. The kid frowned in confusion and glanced back at the robot.

"Oh, you mean flip the construction bot like that?" he exclaimed, "I'm a million horsepower, sir. I know I don't exactly look like it—"

"Horsepower?"

The boy examined Danny quizzically. "You do realize I'm a robot, right?"


	2. Chapter 2

Note on Characters:

_Astro Boy_ was first a Japanese comic called _Tetsuwan Atomu _(Mighty Atom), so it seemed natural keep the setting and characters true to their Eastern origins. That said, the character names are the original Japanese ones and not the ones from later English adaptations. For reference:

Astro Boy = Atomu

Dr. O'shay/Dr. Elephun = Professor Ochanomizu

Inspector/Officer Scrubbrush = Officer Tawashi (Which also means scrub brush. Go figure.)

Zoran = Uran

I will translate more character names as they're introduced. Characters speaking in Japanese will speak in "_quoted italics_".

Chapter 2.

Danny stared. A robot? The kid was a ROBOT?

He had… _thought_ something was odd about the boy, and now he knew what had been bugging him. It wasn't skin he saw, but plastic. His hair wasn't any more real than a wig. The large brown eyes looking at him were cleverly painted and disguised cameras. What more, the boots and black and green underwear weren't actually clothing, they were _part_ of him.

Catching the untold message, the boy's eyes widened. "I'm so sorry sir, I thought you had assumed! If it makes you uncomfortable, I'll gladly give some space!" he blurted out, quickly taking a step back.

"No, no, it's fine," muttered Danny, rubbing his forehead. What friggin' YEAR was this? This kid was more lifelike than some _people_ he'd met.

"Really?" he said, beaming with relief. He grasped Danny's arm and helped him to his feet.

"I'm Atom sir, though the Japanese pronunciation is Atomu."

"I'm Danny."

"It's nice to meet you, Danny. Sorry you were shot, we'll get that washed up and bandaged as soon as possible—" he grimaced and looked down.

"I told him to wait until I sent a signal…" he sighed irritably, reaching up to his chest and prying open a square panel. The hatch revealed an array of USB and plug jacks, wires, LEDs, buttons, and other electronic devices. He turned on a small speaker.

"ATOMU!" bellowed a man's voice. Atomu winced and mentally adjusted the volume.

"_Officer Tawashi, please don't shout. I can hear,_" he groaned.

"_It's been 30 minutes! What's going on? Did you get him?_" Tawashi demanded.

"_Yeah, I subdued him and shut off his power. He didn't respond to my attempts to reason with him, so I had to use force._"

"_Excellent! Which building are you in? We'll move in immediately!_"

Danny slouched against the wall and attempted to not stare. He picked at his wound until Atomu had finished the conversation and snapped his chest shut.

"Was that the police?" Danny asked.

"Yes, I told them to take the construction bot to the Ministry of Science to have its CPU examined."

Danny bit his lip, and considered the fact that being in an abandoned house on the same block as a killer robot with no good explanation was not going to sound good to the police. Danny and decided to screw secrecy.

"Atomu, what year is it?"

Atomu stared at him.

"Are you serious?" he asked incredulously.

"Yes, unfortunately."

The boy scrutinized Danny's face for a sign of a bluff. "Does this have something to do with you not knowing why you're here?"

"Yes. What year is it?"

"2005," Atomu answered.

"Holy shit, please tell me you're kidding."

"What? What's wrong?" he yelped, "What year did you think it was?"

"I think I'm in an alternate dimension," Danny moaned, bringing his hands over his eyes.

Atomu tried to say something, but was interrupted as the police flooded into the building through the hole in the wall. The person Atomu had been contacted by, a man with a nose as large as his voice and clipped brown moustache, followed them and shouted orders. He spotted them and walked up.

"_Ah, there you are! Thank you, we are in your debt yet again,_" he barked merrily.

Atomu, clearly annoyed by the interruption, impatiently replied "_Yes, any time, Officer._"

Tawashi looked up and noticed Danny. "_Who're you, punk?_" he growled, "_Atomu, what's he doing here?_" He stepped uncomfortably close to Danny and glared at him. Danny had no idea what the man was saying, but got the distinct impression he was unwelcome.

"_Hey, hey! It's fine, he's one of my friends!_"

Tawashi stepped back. "_Well, he could have said so himself._"

"_Danny doesn't speak Japanese,_" Atomu answered, then apologetically looked over his shoulder and said "Sorry about him."

"_Well, tell him that even if he is your friend, he has no business being in a place like this._"

"_Yes, Tawashi,_" Atomu said, waited for him to walk away, then turned back to Danny. "Please, please continue!" he said urgently.

"_Yo, Atomu!_" hollered a policeman, "_We need help lifting this thing!_"

Atomu moaned hopelessly and leaned his forehead into his palms. "_Coming!_" he shouted as he loped over to the fallen robot.

"_Get the limbs, ok guys?_" he yelled, wrenching up the side, wedging himself under the body, and pushing it up onto his shoulders with an enormous groan of metal. The policemen scurried to grab the arms and legs as Atomu started to drag it out of the house. Danny tagged along behind the swarm as they shuffled out to a truck labeled with characters Danny couldn't read. He glanced around at the police cars, which were shaped like snarling dog heads. Yeah, this definitely not the earth he was familiar with.

Cheers and shouts behind him told that the robot had been successfully loaded. As Atomu ran over to him, he realized something disturbing about all the surrounding vehicles.

"Atomu, none of these cars have wheels."

The boy frowned. "How far from the past are you? Wheels were banned from city limits ages ago in favor of anti-grav engines, because they cause less damage to roads."

"I'm from 2007, actually," Danny sighed, "and your technology is what I would consider to be futuristic. When you told me that you were a robot, I thought that it must be 2060 or something."

"Oh, I see what you're thinking!" Atomu said, "You're two years ahead, but because our technology is more advanced this dimension must be separate from yours!"

Danny gave a short laugh. "I don't know why you're even believing a word I say. Hell, I wouldn't believe myself if I heard what I'm telling you."

Atom smiled and pointed his thumb at his chest. "I'm programmed to be the best at reading body language and voice tone. I can almost always tell when someone's lying, and you aren't."

They looked up as another floating car pulled up next to the truck. A balding man with curly white hair and huge nose stepped out and talked briefly with the truck driver.

"_Professor Ochanomizu!_" Atomu yelled, waving his hands wildly.

"Who's that?" Danny asked.

"He's Mr. Ochanomizu from the Ministry of Science. He can probably help you with your problem!"

The man saw them and walked over. "_Hey, Atomu,_" he said cheerfully, "_Who's your friend?_"

Atomu glanced at Danny, pulled Ochanomizu closer and started to explain in a fast stream of Japanese. The foreign teenager, once again left out of the circle, stood awkwardly to the side and watched the furious exchange. Finally Ochanomizu stopped and looked up at the subject of their conversation.

He started to introduce himself, then paused and said "I'm sorry, you only speak English, yes?" in a heavy Japanese accent.

"You speak English too?" Danny asked, surprised.

"The scientists at the Ministry work internationally," he explained, "I speak many languages. But, that's not the subject. Atomu tells me you believe you are from another dimension."

"I _am_ from another dimension," he said, looking around at the relatively innocent suburban surroundings.

"I don't doubt you!" he exclaimed, "Atomu explained your reasoning and it seems logical. And I trust Atomu's judgment to trust you, as he tends to be right about these sorts of things."

"Yeah, we've dealt with time travel and aliens before, so dimensional travel isn't out of the question." Atomu added.

"Though it is new to us, so the Ministry of Science would be glad to help. But first you should tell us as much as you can about how you got here. Spare nothing."

A shout came from the truck as its anti-grav engines whirred to life. "_Ochanomizu! Get your ass in the car!_"

"Perhaps on the way to the Ministry, Professor?" Atomu said raising his eyebrows.

"_Right, right, I forgot about that,_" Ochanomizu muttered, "Come, you two, we can talk on the way there."

They walked over to the small yellow car, Ochanomizu getting in the driver's seat and Atomu in one of the back ones. Danny glanced inside it, hesitating to enter. It didn't look much different than a normal car. The dashboard was a little bit strange, but not drastically so.

"Oh, come on, it won't bite you!" Atomu scolded, grabbing and pulling him down into the seat next to him. The car seemed to bob a little like boat as he stepped in. Danny shut the door behind him, sat down, and nervously buckled his seatbelt. _This is going to be interesting_, he thought, looking out the window. Ochanomizu turned the ignition, and a low hum started beneath his feet. He hissed as he felt the car rise about a foot off the ground and glide forward in a single smooth motion.

Atomu gave a laugh at his expression. "This must be really weird for you," he commented.

"Yeah," Danny muttered. He had never realized had much vibration and noise tires created.

"We were talking about how you got here?" Ochanomizu reminded them.

"Oh, right," he said, prying his eyes away from window, "It's kind of a convoluted story… you mentioned how you deal with time travel and robots? …I deal with ghosts."

"Ghosts?" Ochanomizu yelped.

"You mean spirits of dead people?" Atomu asked incredulously, his eyes widening.

Danny frowned. "No, not really. They're more like a different type of life form made of this incorporeal stuff called ectoplasm. Sometimes a human will leave behind a ghost when they die, but it's more of an echo of their regrets than a soul, per say."

"How does this connect to you appearing in this dimension?" he questioned.

"Well…" Danny slouched back and tried to come up with a good explanation, "All ghosts originate from a separate dimension called the Ghost Zone."

"_Creative,_" Ochanomizu muttered.

"_Hush! I want to see where he's going with this!_" Atomu scolded. "Go on, Danny," he urged.

Danny gave them both funny looks. "Well, the Ghost Zone's a different dimension than the one I live in, but we're really, _really_ close to each other. About as close dimensions can be without, you know, crashing into each other. It's all a bit unstable, so there's lots of naturally occurring portals between our dimension and the Ghost Zone. My parents are rather fanatically obsessed with ghosts, so they took advantage of that and made an artificial Ghost Portal in our basement. My parents, also being rather absent minded, have no control over what goes in and out of the portal, so the ghosts just come and go as they please. Not that the majority do any harm, but some are malevolent. And it's kind of my job to help fight them. So, this happened when I was in the Ghost Zone chasing one ghost because I thought he might have information about some bigger ghost that's been bugging our town, but I was accidently sucked into this dimension."

"I… believe I understood most of that," the professor commented, "What do you think, Atomu?"

"Honestly, I'm a little disturbed," Atomu replied, "The fact he ran into a portal to our world would seem to indicate that our world is bonding to the Ghost dimension in a similar way Danny's has."

"Actually—" Danny interjected thoughtfully, "…it wasn't a portal. It looked more like a tear, like in a ripped sheet of paper or something. And portals don't really pull you in, they just act as a doorway. This literally sucked me in as soon as I got in its 'gravity well,' so to speak." Danny scratched his forehead. "I've never seen anything like it. It seemed unnatural."

"Still, if there's one, there may be more," Atomu pointed out.

"I kind of hope there are," Danny moaned, "Otherwise I may be stuck here for a long, long time. Hell, if there's a difference in how time lapses in our dimensions, a second here could equal years back home."

"Yeah… unfortunately we can't really do anything about it right now," he sighed, idly swinging his legs.

"Yeah, I'm pretty much screwed over b… woah." Danny looked out the window at the view of skyscrapers, intertwined with multiple layers of roads. They were on one of the higher levels, and Danny could see what looked like a huge airport on a peninsula. Sea water almost completely surrounded the vast circular expanse of concrete, the grey surface glowing orange in the sunset. He stared in awe as a space shuttle shot up a huge curved sled and blazed of in a column of fire.

"Where's that ship going?" Danny asked excitedly.

"Uh…" Atomu craned his neck and focused his telescopic vision the vanishing ship.

"Oh, that's a cargo vessel. It's probably carrying supplies to the mining base on Demios."

"That's one of Mars's moons!" he exclaimed.

"Yep. I've been there once."

"Not that he was invited, but that never stops him," Ochanomizu remarked sarcastically.

Atomu laughed and started teasing the professor in Japanese. Danny stared out the other window. They were dazzlingly high up, and looking down through the noodle-like mess of roads and catwalks made him feel slightly dizzy.

"It must be hell to navigate these streets," he commented.

"The car does all the navigating," Ochanomizu explained, "Most people don't even bother to put their hands on the steering wheel. I usually have it in manual, though. Atomu and I tend to be trouble magnets, so I've become a bit paranoid."

"I must be too. A trouble magnet, that is. It would explain why I got pulled through the very fabric of time and space just to appear in the same block as a rampaging robot," he muttered in a sarcastly.

Another rocket launch quickly diverted his attention, though. "What's that ship?" he asked with wide-eyed enthusiasm.

"Passenger ship to the moon," Atomu replied.

"Damn, I gotta get me a ride on one of those," he murmured as he watched the light of the thrusters vanish into the upper atmosphere.

Atomu gave a sly smile. "I guess it isn't all bad, huh?"

"We've arrived at the Ministry," Ochanomizu informed them.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3.

They walked over to the small yellow car, Ochanomizu getting in the driver's seat and Atomu in one of the back ones. Danny glanced inside it, hesitating to enter. It didn't look much different than a normal car. The dashboard was a little bit strange, but not drastically so.

"Oh, come on, it won't bite you!" Atomu scolded, grabbing and pulling him down into the seat next to him. The car seemed to bob a little like boat as he stepped in. Danny shut the door behind him, sat down, and nervously buckled his seatbelt. _This is going to be interesting_, he thought, looking out the window. Ochanomizu turned the ignition, and a low hum started beneath his feet. He hissed as he felt the car rise about a foot off the ground and glide forward in a single smooth motion.

Atomu gave a laugh at his expression. "This must be really weird for you," he commented.

"Yeah," Danny muttered. He had never realized had much vibration and noise tires created.

"We were talking about how you got here?" Ochanomizu reminded them.

"Oh, right," he said, prying his eyes away from window, "It's kind of a convoluted story… you mentioned how you deal with time travel and robots? …I deal with ghosts."

"Ghosts?" Ochanomizu yelped.

"You mean spirits of dead people?" Atomu asked incredulously, his eyes widening.

Danny frowned. "No, not really. They're more like a different type of life form made of this incorporeal stuff called ectoplasm. Sometimes a human will leave behind a ghost when they die, but it's more of an echo of their regrets than a soul, per say."

"How does this connect to you appearing in this dimension?" he questioned.

"Well…" Danny slouched back and tried to come up with a good explanation, "All ghosts originate from a separate dimension called the Ghost Zone."

"_Creative,_" Ochanomizu muttered.

"_Hush! I want to see where he's going with this!_" Atomu scolded. "Go on, Danny," he urged.

Danny gave them both funny looks. "Well, the Ghost Zone's a different dimension than the one I live in, but we're really, _really_ close to each other. About as close dimensions can be without, you know, crashing into each other. It's all a bit unstable, so there's lots of naturally occurring portals between our dimension and the Ghost Zone. My parents are rather fanatically obsessed with ghosts, so they took advantage of that and made an artificial Ghost Portal in our basement. My parents, also being rather absent minded, have no control over what goes in and out of the portal, so the ghosts just come and go as they please. Not that the majority do any harm, but some are malevolent. And it's kind of my job to help fight them. So, this happened when I was in the Ghost Zone chasing one ghost because I thought he might have information about some bigger ghost that's been bugging our town, but I was accidently sucked into this dimension."

"I… believe I understood most of that," the professor commented, "What do you think, Atomu?"

"Honestly, I'm a little disturbed," Atomu replied, "The fact he ran into a portal to our world would seem to indicate that our world is bonding to the Ghost dimension in a similar way Danny's has."

"Actually—" Danny interjected thoughtfully, "…it wasn't a portal. It looked more like a tear, like in a ripped sheet of paper or something. And portals don't really pull you in, they just act as a doorway. This literally sucked me in as soon as I got in its 'gravity well,' so to speak." Danny scratched his forehead. "I've never seen anything like it. It seemed unnatural."

"Still, if there's one, there may be more," Atomu pointed out.

"I kind of hope there are," Danny moaned, "Otherwise I may be stuck here for a long, long time. Hell, if there's a difference in how time lapses in our dimensions, a second here could equal years back home."

"Yeah… unfortunately we can't really do anything about it right now," he sighed, idly swinging his legs.

"Yeah, I'm pretty much screwed over b… woah." Danny looked out the window at the view of skyscrapers, intertwined with multiple layers of roads. They were on one of the higher levels, and Danny could see what looked like a huge airport on a peninsula. Sea water almost completely surrounded the vast circular expanse of concrete, the grey surface glowing orange in the sunset. He stared in awe as a space shuttle shot up a huge curved sled and blazed of in a column of fire.

"Where's that ship going?" Danny asked excitedly.

"Uh…" Atomu craned his neck and focused his telescopic vision the vanishing ship.

"Oh, that's a cargo vessel. It's probably carrying supplies to the mining base on Demios."

"That's one of Mars's moons!" he exclaimed.

"Yep. I've been there once."

"Not that he was invited, but that never stops him," Ochanomizu remarked sarcastically.

Atomu laughed and started teasing the professor in Japanese. Danny stared out the other window. They were dazzlingly high up, and looking down through the noodle-like mess of roads and catwalks made him feel slightly dizzy.

"It must be hell to navigate these streets," he commented.

"The car does all the navigating," Ochanomizu explained, "Most people don't even bother to put their hands on the steering wheel. I usually have it in manual, though. Atomu and I tend to be trouble magnets, so I've become a bit paranoid."

"I must be too. A trouble magnet, that is. It would explain why I got pulled through the very fabric of time and space just to appear in the same block as a rampaging robot," he muttered in a sarcastly.

Another rocket launch quickly diverted his attention, though. "What's that ship?" he asked with wide-eyed enthusiasm.

"Passenger ship to the moon," Atomu replied.

"Damn, I gotta get me a ride on one of those," he murmured as he watched the light of the thrusters vanish into the upper atmosphere.

Atomu gave a sly smile. "I guess it isn't all bad, huh?"

"We've arrived at the Ministry," Ochanomizu informed them.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4.

Atomu was awoken at 1 AM by an incoming message. The little alert flashed annoyingly in his mind, forcing him to open his eyes with a grimace. _Shutup shutup_ he thought, opening the file.

Ochanomizu wanted him down at the lab.

He immediately grew tense—if they had been up this late checking on that robot's CPU, something was seriously wrong. Calling him in for something as mundane as that meant they were doing it as a last ditch effort. But why?

Atomu quietly unplugged himself and stood up. Danny was still fast asleep in the bed, which his shifting limbs had quickly converted into a tangled mass of sheets. He stole out of the apartment and down the hall, taking the elevator to the bottom. A scientist was waiting for him outside the elevator.

"_What's the problem?_" he asked, following the briskly striding woman.

"_The problem is that there is no problem,_" she said worriedly, "_We found no faults on the CPU whatsoever._"

They entered a large, warehouse-like room where the construction bot lay lit by the harsh florescent lighting. It was hooked to circular array of computers, one of which a crowd of scientists had gathered around. They stared at the screen, which displayed line after line of coding.

Ochanomizu looked up from the computer and saw the scientists stepping aside to let the boy through.

"_Ah, thank you for coming,_" he said wearily.

"_So you ran it through every program you got?_" Atomu said, intently reading the monitor.

"_Yeah, and this is our second time going through it manually._"

He nodded. "_I understand, I'll analyze it._"

"_God,_" Ochanomizu muttered, rubbing his eyes, "_I can't believe that I'm hoping something is actually wrong with it. If it turns out violent tendencies can erupt from perfectly benign programming, then the public…_"

"_You look terrible,_" Atomu insisted, "_You need to go get some sleep; I'll take care of it._"

"_But I have to—_" he protested.

"_You look like you're about to fall asleep on your feet! All of you, if this isn't your shift, please leave. It'll be fine. Really._"

The crowd murmured belligerently but all eventually shuffled out, except for a skinny intern with thick glasses and a floppy eared cap.

"_Alejo! You work late shifts now?_" Atomu asked, surprised.

"_Well… I do as many shifts as I can nowadays-they said they might promote me to the flight technology branch real soon if I clock enough hours,_" he said excitedly, wrestling a giant bundle of cables.

"_What'd they call you in for?_"

He put down the cables and trotted over to one of the computers, were he opened a compartment under it. "_They wanted me to check the machines here to see if they had bugs,_" he laughed, "_Course now that you're here it doesn't matter. Ah!_" he pulled out a USB cord. "_Here, use this to connect to the robot._" He handed it to Atomu before running out.

"_See you around!_" Atomu shouted.

"_Good night!_" came the faded reply.

The room was empty now, except for the low hum of running computers. Atomu heaved a sigh and hopped up onto the steel giant He pulled the plug out of its back and all the machines in the room chimed and sent up windows reading _Error:disconnection_. He unzipped his jacket and opened his chest, hooking the USB cord between himself and the fallen robot.

"Workaholics, every last one of them," he murmured to himself, before closing his eyes and letting the reams and reams of programming filter through his mind.

Danny woke up, unwillingly, to Uran flashing the light on and off. "What." He grated, squinting against the blinding flashes.

"They asked for us to come down to the lab. Com'n, get up!"

"Stop."

She flipped the light on and ran out. Danny, his head pounding from the glare, slowly dragged his body of the bed. His arms felt like over-cooked noodles, his head was filled with TV static, and his mouth tasted like halitosis. Typical morning. He stood up and stretched his tired back, then looked around, blinking heavily. Atomu was gone. Huh.

He shuffled out and was confronted by Uran. "Get a _move_ on!" she complained, taking his arm and pulling him out of the apartment with a grip like a bear trap. The pale pink light of dawn shone down into the hallway from the skylights, mercifully soft on Danny's eyes.

"Where are we going?" he moaned.

"I told you, the lab!"

"What for?" he muttered, covering his eyes with his free hand as they entered the brightly lit elevator.

"They finished examining the construction robot!"

"Why do we _care?_"

The elevator door had barely opened before Uran ran out, dragging Danny behind her.

"I can walk on my own, you know."

"You sure don't make a good case for it!" she snapped.

They entered the large room, where people in white lab coats were swarming around the robot. At the center of it all was Atomu, prying open joints along the arm and neck. His eyes emitted flickering beams of bluish white light every time he examined something.

"What on earth is he doing?" Danny asked incredulously.

"It looks like he's scanning it… I thought they were doing something to the CPU!" she dragged Danny over to Ochanomizu. "What's going on? Why is Atomu scanning it?"

"Oh! Hello Uran! …and Danny," he added, looking warily at the disheveled teenager at the end of her arm.

"Don't mind him. I don't think he's awake yet," She said caustically.

"Ah. Well, the CPU had no glitches, so Atomu suggested that a microbug might have been attached at some point and managed to override its normal programming. We're hoping to find it, or at least evidence it was there."

"Oh no…" Uran cried, dropping Danny's arm, "Do you think it's the anti-robot groups again?" Danny, freed from her grasp, snuck over to get a better look at the object of their interest.

The robot was just as huge as he remembered it to be. The fact that Atomu, an ant compared to this giant, had nonetheless effortlessly brought it down was kind of scary.

Suddenly, a familiar cold clutched Danny's chest, and he felt a wisp of vapor escape the corner of his mouth. His eyes widened. What? A ghost? Here?

He looked around wildly for the source. Glancing down, he spotted it… something that looked like a trickle of softly glowing green ooze phasing out of the robot's side. Apparently having a mind of its own, it snaked swiftly to the door, staying low to the ground.

Crap! He ran after it, skidding out into the vacant hallway. It was just ahead of him, writhing through the air. "Get back here you little bastard! You must have possessed that robot!" he yelled, transforming and taking off. It noticed him and started to flee, so he fired ghost rays at the escaping creature. One attack hit, and the ooze gave a guttural screech, contracting a ball and sliding to a stop.

He landed in front of it. It looked weird — there seemed to be smaller blobs suspended in it, like organelles in a cell_. I could really use my thermos right now,_ Danny thought, frustrated_, I can't really _do_ anything with it._

Without warning, it shook off the attack and lashed out to engulf his hand. Its grip burned like acid, searing the skin on his fingers.

"Gah!" he yelled, blasting off the slime. It hissed and quickly escaped through the ceiling. "Not so fast," he growled, taking off after it. His hand hurt like hell, but he wasn't letting it get away that easy. They shot sideways through the building, flashing in and out of rooms at a dizzying pace. Danny gritted his teeth-some of the acid must have gone clear through his skin, bright green blood was starting to stain the white knuckles of his glove. They shot silently out the top of the building and into the open air. Danny fired more ghost rays from his uninjured hand, but it dodged around them all and fled to the left.

"Crap, I'm going to be chasing this thing all day!" he muttered angrily, taking off after it.

Then he saw what it was running to— a black tear suspended by nothing, exactly like what he had seen in the Ghost Zone a day before! Realizing that it might vanish at any moment, he panicked and cranked up to full speed. But as soon as the ghost zipped through the crack, they both blinked out of existence, and Danny was left tumbling through the space where they had been moments ago.

He floundered forwards a bit before regaining his balance, took a few seconds to curse incomprehensibly about his luck, then remembered the larger problem. He turned back to the Ministry of Science building.

"I have to warn them…"


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5.

He swooped into the hallway, cautiously checking for people before reverting back to his everyday form. He examined his burned hand as he ran back to the laboratory. It was definitely bleeding, but not really enough to make him worried. Blech, green ghost blood mingling with red human blood always looked gross.

Danny entered the room, but Atomu, Uran, and Ochanomizu were nowhere in sight. _Dammit!_ He thought, looking around for someone who might speak English. He spotted a blond scientist holding a clipboard and figured that was his best bet.

"Excuse me?" The man looked up, surprised by the intrusion. "Do you speak English?"

He laughed. "Yes, you don't need to worry. Most people here speak at least some. What's wrong?"

Danny sighed in relief. "Do you know where Atomu and Ochanomizu went? I really, _really_ need to talk to them!"

"They left back up to their apartment, but if want to talk to the Director you need permission from—"

"Thanks!" Danny shouted, sprinting out of the room to the elevator. He didn't even bother waiting for it; he just phased through the door and shot up the elevator shaft. He swept into the corridor, landing and running down the carpeted hall. _Number 31, number 31_, he thought, looking left and right. Ah! He spotted it and ducked inside. He was greeted by the sight of Ochanomizu and Atomu furiously debating something while Uran sat on the couch, watching TV and trying to ignore them.

She heard the door close and looked up. "Hey Danny," she said.

Atomu snapped out of the conversation and saw Danny. "Where have been? I need to ask you some questions about—"

Ochanomizu's wristwatch suddenly started to beep. "Just a second, both of you," he said in an agitated tone, pressing a small button on the side of the device. A small hologram of a distressed looked scientist popped up.

"_Director! Turn on the television! There's another rogue robot in sector 4-D!_"

"_Uran!_" he shouted.

"_On it!_" she called, grabbing the remote and quickly flipping the channel to a news program. It showed announcer babbling anxiously in Japanese while footage was played of a city street filled with scrambling pedestrians and those weird dog shaped police cars. Danny turned back to Atomu to continue, but he was already stripping out of his jeans.

"I'm getting a signal from Tawashi, the situation must already be beyond their control!"

"No wonder!" Urane gasped, "Look, it's a high profile security robot!"

Atomu ran over to the window and slid up the lower pane. "All of you! Watch the screen, and tell me if you see anyone or anything that's the least bit suspicious!" He stepped up on the sill and leapt out.

"Holy shit!" Danny yelled. He ran over to the window… just in time to see Atomu's rockets roar to life. He stuck his head out the window for a second stared in disbelief as the kid blazed off. _So he can… fly?_ Danny thought in astonishment. _Wait! _He remembered the issue and began to panic. _There's a ghost in that thing!_ _He has no idea what he's getting himself into! _

"ExcusemeIhavetousetherestroo m!" he shouted, running off from Uran and Ochanomizu's confused stares. He hastily locked the door and transformed, turning invisible before blasting out of the apartment and after Atomu. The kid was amazingly fast; Danny had to go intangible just to reduce the air friction enough to catch up to him.

Still invisible, he pulled up about twelve feet away from Atomu, barely maintaining enough speed to stay there. Atomu's feet and lower arms had vanished, having been replaced by roaring jets of flame. His face was practically radiating determination.

Suddenly, he took a sharp turn and blazed downward. "Gah!" Danny yelped, swerving after him. He could now see the street where the scene that had been on the news channel was unfolding. The police cars were surrounding a tall robot with multiple arms, each with a gun fused to the end. _Jesus!_ He thought, _High profile is right! _

They were still plummeting to the ground, and Atomu certainly didn't look like he was going to stop or slow down any time soon. Danny bit his lip. "Screw it," he muttered, pulling out at roof height. The boy shot past him towards the robot, which looked up just in time to see Atomu torque out of the dive, a small clenched fist winding up behind him.

With a clap like a cannon, the robot was knocked through the wall of the building across the street. Shards of plaster and window showered the street as the robot impacted something inside, sending tremors throughout the whole structure. A few policeman and the citizens who had not yet fled gave a small cheer. Tawashi waved and Atomu nodded back before blasting through the gaping hole in the wall.

Danny paused for a bit, a little shaken, but nonetheless glided after him into the building. What he entered was a large supermarket, completely evacuated and eerily silent. Where were they? He could see the badly dented refrigeration unit created by the robot's entry-via-falcon-punch, but no sign of it or Atomu. He landed but stayed intangible. After his bullet scrape and chemical burn, he wasn't taking any chances.

Danny walked past the aisles cautiously. The quiet was really getting to him now, he could feel the cold of apprehension pooling in his gut.

Suddenly, there was an explosion of sound as behind him. He whipped around to see Atomu and the robot spring out of the rows directly on either side of him, both screaming with ferocity. They clashed in midair, and fell grappling onto the top of a shelving unit. It jarred at the impact and started to teeter dangerously, as the security bot fired off a few ear splitting rounds. Atomu, bullets pinging off his skin, grasped of the largest guns and ripped it from the limb it was attached to. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Danny and turned in shock.

Taking advantage of the distraction, the wounded robot slammed an arm into Atomu. He caught the full force of the impact and smashed into the floor hard enough to crater it. The robot bounded off to some other corner of the store, and the final lurch of weight sent the aisle toppling unceremoniously onto Atomu's unmoving form.

Danny stood motionless for a second. After his brain had finally processed all that his eyes had seen, he ran over to where the shelving unit collapsed on the boy.

"Are you OK!" he shouted. He reached for the edge of the shelf, only for it to lift itself in a rain of packaged food. Under it was Atomu, completely unharmed and effortlessly pushing the entire aisle up on his palms. He stared incredulously for a few seconds before speaking.

"Danny?"


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6.

"What?" Danny asked, blank faced.

"Oh please, when I said I was programmed to be the best at recognizing body language and voice tone, I meant it," he hissed, sliding out from under the aisle and pulling Danny out of the open. "Besides, you're speaking English. How many English speaking teenagers do you think live in this city?"

Atomu grabbed Danny's chin and yanked his head down to his own eye level, ignoring the teen's struggling. "Your hair is white, you have a tan, you're wearing a black and white jumpsuit, and your eyes are an unnatural shade of green. Why," he said in a low voice, turning Danny's face from side to side intently.

"This really isn't the time—"

"And you're… _glowing_?"

"There's a ghost possessing that robot!"

Atomu let go and Danny stumbled back, rubbing his chin. "I thought there was a connection!" Atomu exclaimed, "I assume that you mean the ghost is somehow controlling the robot?"

"Yeah, pretty much. It isn't the robot's fault, he isn't getting a say in this."

"Why didn't you tell us this earlier? This is crucial information!"

"I didn't _know_ until like—" A barrage of bullets tore through the shelf to the right, and Danny instinctually crouched and phased while Atomu flinched a little as bullets ricocheted off his skin. He stared in astonishment as Danny stood up, slowly regaining his opacity.

"What did you just do!"

"I can explain later, when there isn't something _shooting_ at us!"

There came a small scraping noise from behind them, and they both snapped their heads around to look. The robot loomed at the end of the row. Apparently displeased that they weren't dead, it raised its guns… only for clicking noises to come out. Roaring in displeasure, it took another option and charged at them.

Atomu swiftly hooked Danny's shoulders and fired up his rockets, and they blasted forward just as the linoleum they'd been on moments ago was gouged the robot's arm. Undeterred, the bot lunged after them with surprising speed and smacked one of Atomu's rockets. Atomu cried out, spiraling into another aisle. Danny managed to roll out of the fall, but Atomu hit the floor dead on, his body making an oddly metallic clatter. His left rocket was smoking badly.

Danny scrambled up and ran over to him. "Hey, hey, Atomu! Are you alright?"

Atomu sat up like a shot and grabbed his leg, grimacing.

"Wow, he nearly dented the rim." His foot snapped back out with a mechanical whir and clack. He stared at Danny again, still holding his leg. "Seriously, how did those bullets just pass through you?" he asked, studying the teenager's alien appearance. "Is this… normal for your dimension?"

"No, no, it's not—I said I'd explain everything later!" Danny shouted, just as the robot gleefully crashed its way into the aisle and charged at them again. Atomu blasted forward, striking it with both palms and halting its momentum. The robot stumbled and braced against the force, thrashing its arms at the boy, but Atomu just grabbed another limb and ripped it off. The robot bellowed in pain, smacking him off and turning its looming figure to Danny.

"Oh damn," he muttered.

It attempted to smash him, but only got the floor as he shot up out of range. Danny whipped out his hand and fired ghost rays, but they didn't do much more than dent the heavy metal armor. Angered by the attack, it swung up an arm to grab him, but Danny floated just beyond his reach.

He cracked a grin. "What, can't ya get me?"

The robot scowled. Without warning, it crouched and leaped, snatching his leg. Danny was instantly ripped out of the air and flung against the ground with painful force. _Right_, he thought, _I forgot it could jump. _His eyes opened just in time to see a large metal claw, hurtling forwards to crush his skull. Then suddenly, the robot jerked up, twitching spastically as the hum of its processers fading. With one last massive shudder, its legs collapsed under it and the robot slumped slowly off to the side. Behind it stood Atomu, a bundle of wires clenched in his fist. The last few sparks of electricity were arcing dangerously from the frayed metal tips. The falling robot brushed the shelves, knocking a few things off before hitting the floor with an earsplitting clatter.

"So," Atomu said, dropping the wires. "Explain."

"Just a second," Danny groaned, propping himself up on an elbow.

"I just saw you _fly and shoot energy beams out of your bare hands_, not to mention your general appearance, what you're wearing, and how earlier you made those bullets pass through you harmlessly. I kind of need some filling in here."

Danny slowly got up and walked over to the heavily damaged robot. He had a pretty good idea where the ghost was.

"First things first," he said, cracking his knuckles, "Where's the brain on this thing?"

Atomu's eyes widened as he remembered the situation. "Ah, right! You said there was a ghost controlling it! You think it's still in there?" he said, looking at the robot in wary fascination.

"I'm certain. Where."

"The chest, like most models."

Danny nodded. He poised over the body, hand now transparent. It was his already hurt one, no way was he burning both hands in one day.

Danny struck, plunging in his arm and grabbing a fistful of ghost. It screeched as he it ripped off the robot's CPU, and quickly phased through his grip. It fled towards the front of the store, only to fall to the ground from a freezing blast.

"Huh. I should have done that ages ago," he griped, walking over to pick up the now harmless creature.

"That's a ghost?" Atomu asked, running over to join him. He looked cautiously at it, hand hovering a moment before he tapped the frozen surface.

"Yeah, usually they're more like humans or animals. I'm not sure what the heck this one is. It's pretty primitive looking."

"Did you… freeze it?" Atomu asked, puzzled, "Now I'm just confused. What _are_ you?"

"Well," Danny said, squirming uncomfortably, "It's kind of complicated…"

"You could at least try to explain—" he stopped and groaned. "Good god, he must have the physic ability to tell when I'm trying to talk about something important!"

"Is that the police dude calling you again?"

"Yes," he muttered, opening his chest. Then he sighed and looked back up at Danny. "You should leave, now. You being here is going to raise questions, and it's best if we discussed this with the others, anyway."

"No no, it's fine. I'll just do this." He hitched the immobile ghost under his arm, and both of them flickered and vanished.

Atomu blinked. "…Are you still there?"

"Yeah, you just can't see me."

_He can fly, turn invisible, and turn intangible_, Atomu thought, _I'm beginning to wonder who exactly is the ghost here._


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7.

Atomu was rocketing above the city back to the Ministry Building. He was at an altitude of 879 meters and traveling at a speed of 210 kilometers per hour. Other than his own rockets, wind static, and the street noise below; he heard nothing.

"Danny," he called, "Are you still there?"

"_Please_ slow down," came the strangled reply.

"Sorry," Atomu decreased the power to his rockets, lowering his speed to 70 kph. A couple of meters to his right, Danny blinked into view. "Thanks, it's really hard for me to go that fast."

"Where did your legs go?"

Danny glanced back. As usual, he had unconsciously formed a spectral tail while in flight.

"Actually," Atomu noted, "It makes you look like a ghost." He flicked his rockets and drew closer to Danny. "I also saw that ghost you're holding use the same 'intangibility' trick as you to escape your hand. You said this isn't normal for your dimension-so in all seriousness, are you a ghost?"

_Damn! Does he catch on fast or what?_ Danny fidgeted uncomfortably and averted his eyes from the boy's gaze. Atomu sighed and drew back.

"Well, you can tell it to Ochanomizu and Uran now, too. We're here."

Uran looked up at the sound of her brother's approaching rockets.

"_Professor! He's back!_" she said, shaking his sleeve. Atomu swept into the room, his feet snapping out before he hit the floor.

"_Sorry Atomu, but you punched the robot into the building, so we couldn't see much._"

"_It doesn't matter,_" he said, turning to the window and folding his arms. "Danny! Stop being shy and get in here!"

Huh? Danny? But he's— Danny slid through the window and landed softly in the room.

God, did he hate being stared at.

"That's Danny?" Uran gasped, pulling herself to the top of the couch for a better view. Atomu began to fill in the situation for them in a fast stream of Japanese, while Danny stood awkwardly in the middle of the floor. Eventually Atomu finished and they all looked back at him.

"Wow, Danny, did you really do all that?" Uran asked incredulously.

"I'd like to know _how_ he did it, but he's been repeatedly dodging the question."

"Fine! Fine!" Danny complained, "You know how I mentioned that Ghost Portal my parents made? Back before it worked, one of my friends dared me to go in and turn it on, which I did. And so I learned the painful way that doing that totally messes up your DNA with ectoplasm."

"So… you _are_ a ghost?" Atomu said quizzically.

"No, I'm half ghost. A full ghost can't do this." He transformed back into a human with a flash of glowing white rings. "See? And now I'm back."

"Even your clothes," Ochanomizu remarked, impressed.

"You looked cooler the other way," Uran complained.

"After my accident the portal worked, so the number of ghosts in the town went through the roof. My parents hadn't become competent ghost hunters yet, so I took up the responsibility in secret."

"Why were you so hesitant to tell us about this?" Atomu asked, "This is great—not only can you hold a decent fight with me, but you know what these creatures can do because you can do it yourself!"

Danny scratched his head in embarrassment. "Sorry, I guess I've become kind of paranoid… See, before the secret finally got out, only two of my close friends and my big sister knew. Half the time I was either being chased by my parents and every other ghost hunter in town because they wanted to kill me, or being feared by everyone else because, well, I was a ghost. The situation was kind of inhospitable."

"Your own parents were trying to kill you?" Uran said, "Wow, that's pretty horrible…" she turned sarcastically to Atomu, "_It kind of reminds me of someone else's parent issues __that he chooses to ignore."_

"_That is none of your business!_" Atomu said accusingly.

Danny stared at them going back and forth, mildly confused about how an argument had stemmed from the conversation_. It's like yesterday's, but more ferocious,_ he thought.

"_Oi, oi, Stop it! It's an issue we can discuss later!_" Ochanomizu sighed, breaking them up. Uran glared at Atomu and he ignored her, walking over to where he had left his clothes. Danny decided not to ask. "Hey," he interjected, "Is there a freezer around here somewhere? My arm's getting tired."

-Amity Park-

Meanwhile, Mrs. Fenton was kicking a ghost in the face.

"I think that's the last of them!" her husband shouted as the stunned creature collapsed and she sucked it into a Fenton Thermos. They rushed out of the abandoned movie theater to the curb, where Jazz was waiting by the RV. It was a cold, overcast February afternoon, and the sidewalk was coated with frost.

"That was the third strike this hour," Jazz said worriedly, "And they're starting to act more aggressive. Did anyone else notice how this group seemed to be actively targeting us?"

"They're all the same type, too," Maddie said as they clambered into the vehicle. She slammed the door and turned the ignition.

"Yes, they're all these proto-dog things made of green goo," Jack announced, "I haven't gotten a chance to analyze one yet, but I think they're made of almost pure ectoplasm."

"But honey, if they're such a primitive form of ghost, then they shouldn't be smart enough to arrange themselves into the attack patterns they've been taking!" Maddie protested.

"I doubt it's their own doing, they're probably being controlled." Jazz said.

There was a brief silence except for the rumble of wheels. "…You think so?" Maddie asked hesitantly.

"It's a logical conclusion. I think there's another more powerful ghost out there making and manipulating them."

Jack smacked his knee with a fist. "Goddamit, where is my son? Jazz, have you received any news from his girlfriend and the boy in the hat?"

"_Sam_ and _Tucker_, dad," she groaned, "Are still looking for him in the Specter Speeder."

"Oooh, Jazz darling, could you call them again?" Maddie whined, "It's making me so worried."

Jazz sighed and pulled a clunky radio transceiver brandishing the Fenton logo from her pocket. "If they had made any progress, they would have contacted us, you know," she warned before pressing the call button.

"Hello? Sam? Someone?"

"Hey Jazz!" came the weary reply, "No, we haven't found him yet."

"We've been asking around, too," Tucker's voice said, "You know, with the few ghosts who would cooperate."

"And the few we could _find._ We've seen almost no ghosts at all, and the ones we did find were really jumpy. Even Skulker looked like he was going to jump out of his skin… It's kind of creepy how quiet it is down here."

"One might even say it's a ghost town!"

"…Tucker."

"Yes Sam?"

"Put a sock in it or I'll put my fist in it."

"Yes Sam."

"Nice to see that teamwork, guys." Jazz sighed, "Call if there's any developments on where the hell my brother is."

"Aye aye, captain," Sam replied with equal sarcasm before they broke contact.

"That doesn't sound too good," Maddie said, "Jazz honey, do you think it's the same theoretical ghost that's controlling the ghosts up here that's terrorizing the ghosts down there?"

"It's probable…" she trailed off into thought as the RV pulled into the driveway of Fenton Works. Jack put it into park and dutifully returned to watching the ecto-signature screen.

"Oh, where is that Valerie girl, Jazz?" Maddie asked in a morose tone, "She hunts ghosts, right? Can't she help us? Even having the Men in White here would be better than nothing, though I do hate those government types…"

"Valerie's out of town with relatives, and the Men in White are busy taking care of something in Wisconsin." Jazz sighed, looking at the faintly glowing green of the detector monitor. Suddenly she jolted up.

"Hey! Can't you view past ghost movements on this thing?"

"Well, yes. Why?"

"None of the ghosts have been coming out of our portal, we know that much. But, they've been appearing too frequently to just be coming in from randomly occurring natural portals!"

"So you're saying—"

"A permanent one must be somewhere else in this town! And if my previous theory is correct, the ghost is making them is in the Ghost Zone and sending them through it into our town!" Jazz pointed at the machine, "We can still use this machine to figure out where that portal is!"

Maddie nodded purposefully, tapping on the keyboard and layering the past ghost patterns on top of each other. As Jazz had suspected, all of the fine green lines trailed out from a certain point at the edge of the town.

"That's it!" she exclaimed, immediately as another blinking dot appeared on the map. The speakers fired up and the ghost alarm gave off a series of piercing beeps.

"And that's our cue! Hit it, Maddie!" Jack shouted, and the Fenton-mobile screeched out of the icy driveway and roared down the street.

"Jazz!" Maddie called over the engine noise, "Be a dear and tell Sam to be on the lookout. If what you say is true, they could be in a danger zone!"

-Metro City-

"So… what do you normally do with ghosts when you catch them?" Atomu asked, drumming his fingers on the side of the elevator.

"We just release them back to the Ghost Zone. Unfortunately, I have no equipment for containing the little bugger and certainly no access to the Ghost Zone, otherwise I'd be _long_ gone."

"Equipment?"

"Yep. My parents didn't just make a portal, they made a whole slew of junk for hunting and catching 'ectoplasmic beings.' Ironically, most of them use ectoplasm to work." The elevator doors opened to the fourteenth floor, and the sight immediately caused Danny to shrink back. People in medical uniforms were bustling down the bleach white hallway, going in and out of doors with carts of sterilized stainless steel equipment. The air smelled like pine sol and ammonia.

"What's wrong?" Atomu asked, confused.

"It looks like a hospital!" Danny protested.

"That's because this is the medical floor," Atomu replied matter-of-factly.

"What? Why are the walk-in freezers here?"

"Cryogenics."

"Oh…" Danny said, and Atomu took the opportunity to pull him out of the elevator before the doors closed. "Wait, you mean you have frozen people here!"

"Of course not, mainly we keep donor organs in them!"

"Oh, because that's so much better. What, am I going to be shoving the ghost in between the frozen livers?"

Atomu rolled his eyes. "The freezer we're going to is empty. Besides, we mainly store corneas and skin, livers are non-transplantable."

"I don't care whether or not you can transplant livers! I don't want anything to do with this place!" Danny hissed, feeling the wall behind him for the elevator button. "Come _on_," Atomu groaned, grabbing Danny's arm and pulling him forward with an iron grip.

"Nononono!" Danny yelped, scraping his feet against the ground, "You can take it, thank you very much!"

"Danny, you said yourself that the only thing keeping it frozen right now is your hand touching it. It's a bit of a walk to the freezers, and I do _not_ want that thing melting in the middle of the building."

"I like how the reason I have to go is that it's a longer walk. Let's just get this over with," he moaned, watching queasily as a woman walked past carrying a tray of scalpels.

-Amity Park-

"There they are!" Jazz whispered. A group of four amebic dogs loped out of the haze, their bright green bodies contrasting heavily against the overcast background. Oddly though, they seemed to be ignoring the car.

"Look!" Maddie gasped, "They're chasing someone!"

The ghosts sped past the car in pursuit of the man, who was little more than a silhouette in the fog and darkness.

"Change of plans, Maddie! A citizen's in danger!" Jack yelled.

"Got it!" she said, slamming the breaks and yanking hard on the steering wheel. The car tires squealed against the icy road as the rear of the RV swung all the way around.

"Yeehaw!" Maddie yelled, flooring the accelerator.

Jack quickly opened the sunroof and stood up into the chilling wind, hoisting an enormous gun over his shoulder. "Eat Fenton Rifle, ghost scum!" he declared, looking keenly through the viewfinder and pulling the trigger.

The muzzle shot a blast of green energy, turning three of the ghosts into splats of ectoplasm. He had cocked the rifle and prepared to fire again when the remaining ghost sheared off and threw itself onto the windshield. Maddie yelped, sending the car into a serve as it hit the window with an uncoordinated thump. Jack was caught off guard by the sudden turn, and was struck in the chest by the edge of the sunroof. He ducked back inside, winded.

Sensing opportunity, the ghost scrambled up to the roof and prepared to leap into the cab… only to get shot through the head. Jazz crouched in the back seat, holding a smoking Fenton Pistol.

"That's my girl!" Maddie said sweetly, as the ghost tumbled off the RV and flopped onto the road.

"Thanks, mom," Jazz replied, smiling as she shoved the weapon back in its holster, "Let's get the four of them in the Fenton Thermos before they regenerate."

"Are you _sure_ that man's going to be OK?" Jack asked, opening the car door and grabbing a thermos.

"He will if he's a smart cookie and gets in his basement like everyone else," Maddie said.

A beeping noise filled the cabin. "Is that the Ecto-Detector!" Jack and Maddie shouted in unison, immediately grabbing their guns.

"No! No! It's the radio!" Jazz exclaimed, waving her hands to calm them.

"It sounds an awful lot like the Ecto-Detector," Jack said, eyes narrowing with suspicion.

"That's because everything you make beeps," Jazz sighed, pulling out the offending device and pressing the talk button.

"Hey, Sam here."

"Did you find him!" Jazz gasped.

"…No."

"Then why are you calling? Are you in trouble?"

"I was just wondering about something, because we've passed at least 6 of them by now— what are these tears?"

"Tears?" Jazz asked, confused.

"Yeah! It's like a tear in a sheet of paper, except— kind of just floating in space. It sort of looks like someone tore the air open."

"That's… odd." Jazz turned to her parents, "Have you guys seen anything like that before?"

"No, but the description is kind of vague. Could you elaborate?" Maddie asked thoughtfully.

"Uh—just a second," Sam said, followed by the small thump of her hand going over the speaker. Jazz heard her irritated voice faintly say "Tucker, what are you—"

A brief scream came over the connection, but the sound was quickly swallowed by radio static. The call ended with muffled click, and a message blinked onto the small screen reading "_Error: connection lost_." Silence filled the cab.

"What the hell was that?" Jazz whispered.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8.

"Jack, are you sure about this?" Maddie sighed, watching tiredly as her husband stepped out onto the Fenton Works driveway. "If you disappear too…"

"Don't worry, Maddie," he said reassuringly, "I have the Fenton Tracker and the Etco Skeleton. I know everywhere that the Specter Speeder went and the means to get there…and fight, if need be."

"If you say so, dear— just keep in touch. I want an update every 10 minutes at the very least!" she warned.

"Of course, honey. Go find that portal and protect the town while I'm gone!" he said cheerily. He pecked her on the cheek, slammed the car door and ran up to the house. She lingered until he had safely vanished behind the front doors before pulling out of the driveway.

"Turn on that radio, Jazz. I am _not_ taking anymore chances."

Jazz silently took out the radio and pressed the on button. She stared at her lap, absentmindedly running her thumb over the number pad as the LCD screen flickered to life.

"Any thoughts?" Maddie asked, breaking the quiet.

"A tear-what on earth could that mean?" she shook her head slowly, her long red hair falling down in front of her eyes. "And the disappearances-are they connected to each other? To the tears Sam mentioned? Or were they just attacked? By what?" she buried her face in her hands. "I don't know! I don't understand anything!"

The silence fell again, permeated only by the faint rumble of the wheels. Maddie slowed the RV and let it idle in the middle of the road. There was no traffic; everyone was hiding in their houses.

"Jazz," she whispered softly.

Jazz said nothing.

"This situation is difficult for all of us. But your father is scraping the Ghost Zone right now for your brother and his friends, so we've got to pull it together and do the best we can up here. It may seem hopeless, but no matter what, we can't just stop trying. It's not the Fenton family way."

Jazz wiped her face on her sleeve and gave a small smile. "You just had to add that, didn't you."

"That's more like the daughter I know and love! Com'n up here and get in the front seat."

-Metro City-

While that was happening, Danny was blasting through a residential part of the town after yet another ghost. Soon after he had put the ghost in the freezer and all but sprinted to the elevator, Atomu had gotten another signal from Tawashi. This time, as the officer was annoyed to report, it was a police drone in the city park.

Now that the situation was clear between Danny and Atomu, they were able to respond with speed and manage to disable the robot without difficulty. Unfortunately the ghost had escaped before Danny could freeze it. He was currently chasing it through among a maze of houses, waiting for them to emerge in an open area so he could safely shoot ice rays. Atomu was some where above and behind them- he may have effortlessly outpaced Danny in the sky, but Danny's intangibility and sharp turns gave him unparalleled speed in cluttered urban areas. The ghost suddenly swerved to the left, and Danny swooped after it, tightly following its path. His opportunity to fire came sooner than later, as the ghost had turned into an abandoned, weed-ridden lot in the middle of a block.

Danny gasped at what abruptly came into view. At the very center of it, suspended about four feet above the ground, was another tear. The sight shocked him long enough for the ghost to escape through it, and he watched helplessly as the sides began to slowly meld back together.

_Crap! Change of priority!_ He gritted his teeth, swooping towards the closing gap as fast as he could. Wait. Was that a… scream? He thought for a brief second before slamming into the windshield of the Specter Speeder. It screeched to a halt as Tucker floored the now functional brakes.

"Danny!" Sam yelled joyfully.

"Sam? Tucker!" he said in disbelief, peeling his face off the glass.

"We were looking for you, man!" Tucker shouted, a wide smile on his face. Sam flung open the door and ran out, pulling Danny off the hood and embracing him.

"Oh god, we were all so worried…" she murmured into his shoulder before letting go.

On the other side Tucker hopped out. "Sorry we ran into you, dude. The Speeder was sucked into this weird tear thing and lost control; I couldn't steer out of it or anything." He glanced around, seeming to finally notice their surroundings. "Where _are_ we?"

"This isn't part of the Ghost Zone, is it?" Sam asked quizzically, looking around with Tucker.

"It definitely ain't—but-this isn't Amity Park—"

Danny smiled and spread his arms wide. "Welcome to Japan, guys."

They turned and stared at him.

"What." Sam said.

"Specifically, Japan, 2005. But see that?" he pointed at the skyline of impossibly high buildings and roads, "It's also the future. A prize to anyone who can guess what _that _means."

"We're… in another dimension?" Tucker asked.

Sam gave a low groan. "Holy _flying_ fuck, please tell me you're kidding."

"Sorry guys, but it's going to be a while before any of us gets back to Amity Park. Better make yourselves comfortable."

"Waaait." Tucker said narrowing his eyes as he stared at the skyscrapers in the distance "By "future" do you mean super advanced technology? What's it like?"

The familiar sound of rockets filled the air. "Why don't you ask him yourself?" Danny suggested.

"Huh?"

Atomu swooped low into the clearing, blasting up a ring of dust as he paused to hover and stare at the two unfamiliar faces. Finally his feet snapped out and he landed. "Danny, who are these two? Do you know them?" he asked incredulously, taking an uncertain step forward.

"Yeah! They're my friends from Amity Park—there was another dimensional tear here. The ghost went in and they came out." He made a sweeping gesture in their direction, "Atomu, this is Sam and Tucker. Sam and Tucker, this Atomu."

"It's a pleasure to meet you both, although I'm sorry it's under these circumstances," he responded, bowing politely.

"Wh- fire? Rockets? Danny- is he-" Tucker gasped, leaning forward.

"Oh, right. And just clear any confusion, yes. Atomu is a robot."

"Seriously?" Sam said, wide-eyed, "If you hadn't just _flown_ in, I would've never thought!"

"It's true," he said, snapping open his chest hatch and tapping the metal inside.

"Jesus!" Sam gasped.

"Holy crap!" Tucker yelled, lunging forward before Danny grabbed his collar.

"Bad tech geek! Don't stick your fingers in there!"

"But!" he whined.

Atomu shut his chest and walked over to the Specter Speeder, crouching to wave his hand under the bottom. "Hey Danny, I though you said you'd never seen an anti-grav car before! This thing is clearly floating."

"Anti-gravity cars?" Tucker wheezed.

"Oh, the Specter Speeder? Well— my parents made that. It's an exception," Atomu gave a snort at the comment and Danny let go of Tucker, who was muttering something about contractile polymers and voice inflection. "We mainly use it for patrolling the Ghost Zone, though it works outside too." He rapped the side with his knuckles. "It floats the same way I do, which doesn't require any energy. It'll sit a foot off the ground forever until you give it a push."

Atomu whistled. "You can hover without _any_ effort? You're luckier than you know. I burn fuel like mad when I fly." He got up and poked his head through the open side door, taking in the mosaic of odd buttons and devices coating the inside of the cab.

Sam sidled up to Danny, repressing a small snicker. "Not wearing much, is he?" she whispered to Danny. Danny shrugged.

"What do half of these even do?" Atomu said with a mixture of curiousness and bewilderment, stepping carefully up into the cab.

"Hell if I know," Danny said, "All I can do is pilot it. I don't think even my dad knows what everything in there does, and he built the dang thing."

"_I_ know what everything in there does." Tucker muttered, folding his arms defiantly.

"That's because you spend an unhealthy amount of time in it," Sam snarked, jabbing a finger at his chest.

"Excuse me." They looked up to find Atomu looking at them from inside the Specter Speeder. "Tucker, if you're the expert on this vehicle as you claim to be, may I ask you a question?" he said, leaning on the door frame.

"Yes!" Tucker blurted out, straightening to attention.

"Would it be possible to fly this out of here discretely? If we stay here much longer we're going to attract attention, which I'd like to avoid," he said, glancing at the surrounding houses.

"Of course! Get in, everyone!" Tucker said proudly, thumping a fist to his chest as Sam rolled her eyes. They all boarded into the small cabin, Tucker and Danny taking the front two seats and Sam and Atomu clambering into the back.

"Hey, I finally got me a seatmate!" Sam said, cracking a grin in Atomu's direction, "Usually when all three of us are in here, I'm all lonely back here!"

"Cut me break, Sam," Danny moaned, "Usually you guys are sitting in here while I'm outside fighting for my life."

"Heads up, everyone!" Tucker called, placing a hand on one of the many switches decorating the dashboard, "We're going invisible!" He flipped it, and with a heavy clack Atomu saw everything vanish except for the surrounding environment. They were going to fly like this? He couldn't even see the seat he was sitting on, much less his own legs!

"Tucker." Sam's disembodied voice growled off to his side, oddly confined sounding despite the view of the empty lot, "Is that _damn _thing still broken? I told you fix that ages ago!"

"I know, I know!" his frantic voice floating over from where the driver's seat should have been, accompanied by the scuffling of his hands over the dashboard.

Danny looked at them both in confusion before realizing their predicament. "You guys are all as blind as bats right now?" he asked, amused.

"Yes, Danny, unlike _some people,_ we can't see ourselves when we're invisible!" she snapped, her pose intense but her eyes focused on something beyond his face. To her left Atomu sat in quiet concentration. His pupils were contracting and dilating in an oddly mechanical way, and the light beams that Uran had called scanners were flickering from his eyes.

"Danny you bastard, if you can see then help me out!" Tucker whined, his hands skittering over the dashboard, "I don't need to see to fix it, but I have to know where it is!"

"You think I know which one it is?" Danny laughed.

"I hate you," Tucker said, glaring in his general direction.

Suddenly a string of high-pitched beeps came from the back seat, and Atomu sighed in relief. "_There_ we go!" he stood up and leaned between the two front seats with dead-on precision. The speaker somewhere in his chest chirped again before he grabbed Tucker's hand and moved it to the right switch.

"Did you just use echolocation?" Tucker asked incredulously.

"Yeah. The walls aren't visible, but they still reflect sound."

"…Exactly how good is your hearing?" Sam said quizzically while Tucker fixed the broken wiring.

"Better than most," he replied. Everyone except Danny jumped as the walls flickered back into vision. "Are we still invisible from the outside?" Atomu asked, looking around in confusion at the now apparently opaque walls.

"Yep! Just don't open the door. A doorway floating in space will definitely raise eyebrows." Tucker yanked the steering wheel and the Specter Speeder shot up above roof level. He paused.

"Where are we going again?"

Danny sighed and reached across him for the controls, "Gimmie that," he muttered, twisting the wheel and making the vehicle spin violently in the right direction.

"That building," he said, jabbing his finger at the window.

"Which one?" Tucker asked, squinting at the many buildings in the distance.

"The biggest of the dome-ish ones in the middle."

"Ooooh! That one?"

"That one."

"Get. On. With it." Sam droned, "Does it always take you guys this long to anything?"

"All right!" Tucker yelled, flooring the accelerator and throwing them all back in their seats, "We're going into the city!"


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9.

"The town's being attacked?"

"Yeah," Sam sighed, "Shortly after you left chasing that amoebic ghost dog, groups of them started attacking Amity Park. Then you inconveniently vanished, so we had to go looking for you."

"It's just Mom, Dad, and Jazz in the RV? Screw me, you guys should have been helping them!"

"About those ghosts— you should hear what Jazz told us over the radio," Tucker commented, "She said that they're almost pure ectoplasm, and far too simple to be attacking the way the way they were by themselves; and that there was some bigger baddie somewhere in the Ghost Zone making and controlling them. And get this… they also figured out that they were all coming in through a fixed location!"

"Another fixed portal?" Danny said in astonishment, "Figure the ghost made it himself?"

"Well…" Sam murmured thoughtfully, "I mean, I doubt he would, but Wulf could do that sort of thing. I don't think he has _that _much control over the location he claws into, though…"

"So we're dealing with something that's Wulf up to eleven and evil. Lovely," Danny grated, slouching in despair. Suddenly, he realized something and sat up. "Wait— pure ectoplasm? That sounds a whole lot like me and Atomu have been dealing with. They aren't taking dog-like shapes, but—"

"There are ghosts here!" Sam exclaimed.

"Yeah! What do you think been coming in and out of those tears? They've been possessing robots and wrecking havoc here for God knows what reason."

"There's even more robots?" Tucker said gleefully.

Danny rolled his eyes. "Atomu's an exception, you'll find. Most of them look like the metal they're made of."

"Huh," Sam pondered, scratching her head, "If it's only robots… you figure Technus is behind this?"

"What, him? I have a hard time believing that 'I, Technus, Master of Long Winded Introductions!' could make little ghostlets of himself, much less send them across _the fabric of time and space_. Though I could certainly see him wanting to do it, he'd love this dimension almost as much as you do, Tucker."

"So basically," Tucker added slyly, "We're dealing with what would happen if Wulf and Technus did a fusion dance and turned their power levels up to over 9000."

"WHAT I SAID ABOUT MY FIST AND YOUR MOUTH STILL STANDS." Sam yelled, making a threatening gesture with said fist.

"You guys are so interesting," Atomu commented. He had been watching the conversation go back and forth like a tennis match.

"_Thank you_, Atomu— Tucker! Driving requires that you watch where you're going!"

"Look! Look!" he said excitedly, pointing out the side window. They were above the main part of the city now. "The cars are really floating! All of them! That is so cool, how does it work?"

Danny grabbed the wheel as the Specter Speeder started to list to the side. "Tucker, if you're just going to gape at the view, get out of the driver's seat."

"Uh huh…" he muttered, his mind off in space, "Is that a holographic billboard?" Tucker got up and shifted to the other side, Danny phasing through him to get to the wheel.

"Dude, warn me before you do that creepy thing!"

"Warn me before you decide to stop steering! Go back to being distracted by the window."

"Maybe I will!" he said, mockingly haughty. He went back to staring at the window and asking Atomu a question every five seconds. Sam eventually joined him, asking instead about the meanings of the kanji on signs. Danny told them to stop bothering the poor kid, but Atomu seemed to genuinely enjoy answering the barrage of curious questions. As the conversation slowly devolved into a stream of engineering jargon and complicated linguistics, Danny was glad to see the Ministry of Science come into view before his brain melted.

"Atomu! Can I just park this thing on the roof?" Danny asked, interrupting them.

"Will it stay there and not make the ceiling collapse?"

"Yeah."

"Then go ahead."

"Wow, that was certainly easier than I expected," Danny murmured, raising his eyebrows, "Which window is it? I'll just drop everyone off there."

"Actually, could you hold it for a second?" he interjected, "Tucker, turn off that invisibility thing, we don't really need it anymore. I'm going to go warn Ochanomizu and Uran that you're coming."

"…You're just gonna hop out?" Tucker said quizzically, flipping the switch.

"Yep. See you in a bit," he replied curtly, pulling on the latch and letting warm breeze whip into the cab. Without a blink in regard to the steep drop, he stepped out and vanished. A second later he pulled back up beside them, rockets blazing. He paused long enough to push the door shut before shooting off with a pulse of flame. The Spector Speeder bobbed briefly in his wake.

"Wow," Sam said, "He makes us look like we're going backwards!"

"Where do you think he's storing the fuel for that?" Tucker asked, watching as Atomu hopped into one of the windows on the top floor.

"I don't know, Tucker, because I don't ask him _annoying invasive questions_," Danny sighed.

"Who's Uran and…" Sam struggled to remember the pronunciation, "O…chanomizu?"

"Ochanomizu is the Director of the Ministry of Science, which is the building we're currently approaching, and Uran is Atomu's… little sister, as he puts it. She's another robot, about the same as him except female and doesn't have crazy superpowers."

"Another robot? Ministry of Science? Oh boy!" Tucker squealed with child-like enthusiasm.

"Tucker, are you OK?" Sam asked skeptically.

"He's not," Danny assured her, "At this rate his heart is going to explode from excitement."

As they pulled up, Atomu and Uran popped their heads out of the open window. "She _does_ look like him!" Sam muttered.

"Everybody out!" Danny yelled, "Try not to fall to your death in the process!"

"You're so reassuring," Tucker groaned, watching as Sam opened the door and scrambled over the window ledge without a blink of hesitation. "Com'n yah wuss!" she shouted at him.

"Here," Atomu said, sticking his arm out for assistance, "I know how scary heights are when you can't fly."

Tucker opened the door, but stopped to look pensively across the half-foot wide gap.

"Tucker, Atomu is probably strong enough to hold up you, me, Sam, and the Specter Speeder without visible effort. Stop worrying."

Tucker gritted his teeth, grabbed Atomu's arm and leapt the foot of open space to the window. As soon as his feet hit the ledge, he dove inside like his pants were on fire.

"Be back in a sec," Danny called, reaching across and shutting both doors. He pulled on the wheel and the Speeder shot upward, giving him a view across the roof. It was small and circular, like someone had sliced off the top of the otherwise fairly dome shaped building. The metal ridges that traveled up the length of the building met around its edge, angling off slightly above roof level like a crown. The clear ceiling of the top floor hallway made a ring of glass around it, allowing the noon day sun to shine down into the deserted corridor. Its outer edge was spotted with skylights down into various apartments, and the inner edge surrounded a railed off raised area with stairs into the building. It looked significantly more structurally sound than the rest of it, so Danny steered over and landed the Speeder within the rails, touching down and pulling the parking break. He locked the doors and phased out into the warm air, swooping low across the roof and pausing over the skylight before diving in.

"Hey Danny," Sam said cheerfully from her spread-eagle position on the couch.

"Oh my gosh!" Uran exclaimed, "That was so cool! Did you see that, Atomu? He just went through the window like it wasn't there!" She seemed totally oblivious to Tucker, who was crouching next to her and holding one of her hands to her his ear.

"Tucker, you creep. What are you doing?" Danny sighed.

"I can hear the servos whir when she moves her fingers," Tucker murmured in rapt fascination.

"I don't mind, he's kind of funny," Uran giggled as Tucker examined her hand like it held the meaning of life. Atomu was standing off to the side, wearing his clothes again and looking distinctly uncomfortable with the situation.

"Where's Ochanomizu?" Danny asked, noticing his absence.

"In the office, doing something on the computer. He came out long enough to greet your friends, but he's busy right now," Atomu answered.

"Ah."

"Danny, may I ask you a somewhat personal question?"

Danny looked up in surprise. "Uh…I guess…"

"Can you possess things?"

"Oh!" he said, looking relieved, "Sure I can, it's a pretty basic ability."

"You explained that the robots were being possessed by the ghosts, so I was just curious how exactly it worked."

"Here, I'll demonstrate. Hey, Tucker!"

"Wha?"

"Atomu wants to know how possession works!"

Tucker's eyes widened. "Oh hell no! Do it to Sam for once!"

Danny and Sam exchanged a glance. "Uh, no."

"Fine," Tucker moaned, slowly getting to his feet, "Just be quick about it, okay?"

"Woah!" Atomu protested, waving his hands. "If it's this big a deal, then don't bother!"

"Trust me, you need to see it to understand it at a decent level." Danny smiled grimly at Atomu before plunging a hand into Tucker's head. The rest of his body drained of color and distorted like an image on a faulty TV screen, and in a blink, he had vanished into the other teen.

Tucker stood still for a second, his expression completely blank. Suddenly he straightened up and said in Danny's voice, "So there you have it."

Atomu stared in fascination. "Amazing— and you still sound and act exactly like yourself!"

"I thought you would notice that," Danny sighed, "It takes more effort than I'm willing to put out right now to not talk like myself."

"So other than that, you have complete control over his body?" Atomu asked, walking around Danny to get a better look.

"Yep, I can make him do anything I want now, with the disadvantage of also feeling it."

Atomu came around to Danny's front again and faced him, examining him curiously. "Hmm." He put a hand on his chin. "So where's Tucker in all this?"

"He's basically asleep right now, he'll be fine. He just won't remember anything."

"Is it… possible to _resist_ being possessed?"

"Oh sure! I've never succeeded at doing it though."

"Hey, Danny, you can get out of Tucker now!" Sam reminded him.

"Ah! Right." Danny's ghostly form melted out of Tucker's side, turning solid and grabbing him as his knees buckled.

"You OK?"

"Peachy," Tucker replied sarcastically, shaking himself out of the daze. Atomu watched thoughtfully as they once again started to bicker.

"Hey, Danny. Can you possess robots?"

Danny looked up, startled. "Uh… I… don't know, actually. There haven't exactly been many around in my dimension to possess."

"What about the Tuckerbot?" Sam said cheerfully.

"—I think we all know why that doesn't count."

"Then try it on me," Atomu suggested.

There was a brief silence. "Are you sure?" Danny exclaimed, "I have no flipping clue if it would work, but as Tucker here can attest to, it's not terribly pleasant when it does."

Atomu shook his head. "I don't mind."

"If you say so…" Danny hesitantly turned his hand intangible and crouched down, reaching into Atomu's forehead.

After a few seconds he squinted and pulled it out. "Nope, sorry. Nothing."

"Huh," Atomu said. "I couldn't feel anything either, despite the fact you were sticking your hand in my head."

"Really?" Uran asked, furrowing her brow, "That looked like it _must've_ hurt."

"You want to see for yourself?" Danny said, holding up his still transparent hand and grinning demonically.

"NO!" she yelped, backing away.

Everybody looked up as Ochanomizu stepped out of the adjacent room and collapsed in an easy chair. He looked tired and mildly annoyed.

Did you find anything? Atomu asked, reverting to the native language.

Nothing. There was no correlation between any of them, save for the obvious, he replied tersely, rubbing his eyes. Upon opening them he noticed Uran cowering from Danny's intangible arm. "So, have you been four been doing anything interesting out here?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No, not really," Danny said, quickly returning his arm to normal.

"Actually," Atomu interjected, "Danny was just demonstrating that he himself can possess things, but only humans. He tried it on me and it didn't work. Which makes me wonder… Danny, would you consider your abilities on par with a regular ghost's?"

"Oh yeah, if anything I'm _more_ powerful than the majority."

"Then it's normal to only be able to possess humans?"

"I'm pretty sure. I've never managed to successfully possess an animal before, or for that matter another ghost. Of course _I_ can be possessed because I'm half human, which kind of sucks."

"Would you say then that the ghosts we're dealing with are abnormal?"

Danny paused. "That's… a good question, actually!" he exclaimed, scratching his head.

Tucker raised his hand. "May I once again bring up Technus?"

"Not really," Sam said, getting up on her elbows. "He doesn't possess things; he contaminates them with ectoplasm and telepathically controls them."

"See? That's why!" Tucker said, triumphantly slapping a fist into his palm, "These critters are almost pure ectoplasm, right? And Jazz said someone's controlling them! It makes perfect sense!"

"Huh! He's got a point— maybe it is Technus!" Sam said incredulously.

"Naaaah," Danny shook his head doubtfully, "The theory sounds right, but Technus? Even if he did become obscenely powerful over night, this just isn't his style. If it was Technus he'd already be over here, amassing his legions and raving about world domination in his annoying Gilbert Gottfried voice."

"You're right," Tucker said thoughtfully, "He does sound like Gilbert Gottfried."

"Is that somehow _relevant_?" Sam moaned.

"No, but I know what is. Food! Is there anything to eat around here?" Tucker asked, "I haven't eaten since… I forget."

Ochanomizu sighed. It had to be teenagers…

-Amity Park-

The insistent beeping of the Eco-Detector filled the RV, making them both jump.

"Holy cow, _eighteen_ of them!" The group of specters had just left the portal and were headed at high speed— away from them.

"That's odd," Maddie noted, "But convenient. If they're not focused on us we can take them by surprise."

"But if it's not us, what _are_ they focused on?" Jazz said suspiciously.

"Let's find out!" Maddie slammed the pedal into the floor, and the RV roared forward at a no doubt unsafe speed. "Ready your pistol, dear!" she barked, "I'm trusting you to take care of them while I drive!"

The Ecto-Detector beeped again: six of the eighteen green dots had split off and were now travelling towards them.

"That's going to be sooner than later thanks to that noisy engine," Jazz griped, unlatching the sunroof and switching the power on to her Fenton Pistol, "I've told dad time and time again that he needs to work on that instead of just adding more weapons! Hand me a Thermos, will you?"

Maddie slapped the Thermos into Jazz's hand, and they waited in tense silence as the blinking dots on the radar drew closer. Finally, the vague glowing shapes of ghosts appeared out of the mist at the far end of the road, hurtling directly towards the RV.

Jazz's breath came out in a hiss. "Three… two… one!" She ripped the lid off the Thermos and slammed open the sunroof, ensnaring four of the shocked ghosts in the beam. As they clawed and screeched their way into the container, the remaining two veered off and came in at her from either side. Jazz whipped out her pistol, blasting one, then the other, and sucking them both into the Thermos before they even hit the ground.

"Oh, you show off," Maddie said cheerfully as Jazz sat back down into the still running car and slammed shut the sunroof, cutting off the cold wind.

"Six down, twelve to go." Jazz tapped the screen, "They've gone through the block at the end of this road, so we'll have to turn left and go around it, though… I'm not sure where they'll go next… they're kind of weaving around a lot…"

"So they are! What on earth are they doing? They're definitely not concentrating on fleeing from us." A shot sounded in the distance, and one of the ghosts on the radar stopped moving. Jazz gasped in realization.

"They're chasing someone!"

"Again?" Maddie exclaimed.

"Only this time they've got a weapon! Did you hear that shot?"

"I most certainly did!"

The RV swerved around the block just as the ghosts emerged from the other side, in hot pursuit of a terrified man clutching an Ecto-Gun. Looking at the vague figure running from the ghosts, Jazz a noticed the distinct feeling of déjà vu.

"That's the same person!" Maddie said as they sped closer.

"My thoughts exactly," Jazz muttered, "What is he, a ghost magnet?"

Maddie slammed the brakes, making the tail end of the car sing forward dangerously. As this happened she snatched the Fenton Rifle and flung herself out the side door. "Cover me!" she shouted as she sprinted full speed at the ghosts, hoisting the heavy gun and positioning the viewfinder in front of her eye.

The man had been driven across a lawn and backed up against the wall of a house. He pulled up the gun to defend himself, but one of the ghosts smacked it out of his shaking hands. A cold breeze trickled past his shaking, empty fingers, and he collapsed down against the wall in terror and fatigue. The featureless faces surrounded him, blocking all paths of escape. Their footsteps made no sound against the earth, not even disturbing the rippling blades of grass as they silently drew closer.

Suddenly, two blasts came from the far right. The ghosts turned to see Maddie charging at them screaming, holding the gun that had already fallen two of them. They all felt the mutual urge to run and attack her, but something silenced that impulse before it began. Five ran off to confront the human, and the remaining four turned back to the man. A powerful thought burned in their minds: kill him.

Jazz crouched by the RV, carefully aiming her pistol at the ghosts surrounding the man. She shot twice and hit one, making her bite her lip and mutter about the wrong weapon for the wrong job.

Meanwhile, Maddie seemed to have forgotten her gun's ability to shoot, instead slinging it off her shoulder and using it to bludgeon a couple of the oncoming ghosts aside. The others leapt at her, two going high and one going low. She screamed a battle cry, jumping and slamming the Fenton Rifle into the top two. As they went sailing, she twisted herself midair and stomped her boot heels down hard on the last one, driving it into the pavement.

With careful precision, Jazz pegged off two more of the ghosts surrounding the man. There was only one more, and it stood directly in front of his cowering form. Jazz gritted her teeth. She couldn't shoot it without getting him, too. "Com'n Mom," she whispered, "Hurry."

The man at the wall was shrinking away from the lone specter, too terrified to even try to drive it away. He watched in horror as the ghost's head cleaved in half, stretching into a two-pronged tentacle that quietly reached forward, seeking to wrap around his neck. The ends began to simmer and an acidic smell creeped into the air, burning the inside of his nose and making his eyes water.

"Not on my watch, _ghost scum!_" Maddie screamed, charging up and delivering a well placed roundhouse kick to its side. The ghost sailed thirty feet off to the side before slamming into a fence and flopping motionless to the ground. The limb it had made from its head lashed against the ground as it fell, the ends scorching the earth they touched.

"Yeah!" Jazz cheered, pumping her fist and jumping into the idling RV, grabbing the wheel and steering it over to them. Jazz ran up as Maddie held out her hand to help the shaking man. He hastily clasped it and let her help him to his feet, "Thanks," he muttered.

Jazz and Maddie stared at him, realization finally dawning upon them. His face may have been pale and grimy from the chase, but it was still easily recognizable.

"My god," Jazz said, "It's the mayor!"


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10.

Soon after the start of their sophomore year, Tucker had abandoned his post as mayor. This was partly due to his term expiring, and also due to his mother's threats to throttle him if he didn't start focusing more on his education. His successor was Jonathan Burke, the man who currently stood before them.

Mr. Burke wasn't looking very mayoral at the moment, though. His tan slacks were streaked with dirt from the knee down, and his white shirt was so filthy it couldn't quite be called white anymore. He was a man of his late forties, though his full head of hair and physical fitness made him appear much younger. The only hints at his true age were the worry lines etched into his forehead and a few stray silver hairs tingeing the brown.

"Mr. Burke!" Maddie exclaimed, using her scolding mother voice on even the town mayor, "What are you doing out here?" He jerked his head away from the motionless ghosts scattered across the road, the sound of Maddie's voice seeming to knock him out of his fear-induced stupor. "You should be taking shelter in your house, where the ghosts can't get you!" Maddie continued, undeterred in her admonishment.

Mr. Burke seemed to cringe at the question. "That's where I was chased out of," he protested meekly.

"Didn't you turn on your Fenton House Protection Unit? There was a town wide alert!"

He stared blankly at her for a few seconds before starting to fidget uncomfortably again.

"Lay off, Mom, he's still in shock from the ghost attack. Not everyone in this town is used to fighting off ghosts morning, noon, and night."

"Yet he has an Ecto-Gun?" Maddie asked heatedly, walking over to pick up the offending weapon, "With a Fenton logo, no less! Just _where_ did you get this, mister?" she jabbed the butt end of it into his chest.

Apparently relieved by this topic change, Mr. Burke cleared his throat and quickly stuttered, "Your… husband. He handed them out after a town hall meeting. I was the only person who kept one."

"Hmm." His answer had clearly not satisfied her. "Why are you not in your house?" she repeated.

He coughed. "They… broke the defense system."

She stared at him like he had gone mad. "How? The controller is inside the shield it produces!"

"I don't know!" he spat with a jarring burst of anger, "All I know is that I was chased from my own home and then all over town and— and then nearly killed! I don't know what's going on or why they want me dead, I just!-" his anger had slowly melted into helpless panic until he finally stopped, at a loss for words.

Jazz sighed, leaning towards Maddie and whispering "This is why you save the ruthless interrogation for _after_ the person has come out of shock, Mom." Maddie shifted her weight on her feet awkwardly.

"Sorry," she said, "This is a stressful time for us, too. Our son and his friends went missing in the Ghost Zone, and Jack had to go look for them. It's just us out here fighting the ghosts."

"I though it was weird that the ghost boy wasn't around. Is that the Ghost Assault Vehicle?" he asked, peering over her shoulder.

Maddie blinked. "Well, yes."

He walked over and stared at the plethora of weapons attached to the sides, then turned back to them. "Say, I can't go back to my house right now. Could I hitch a ride with you guys?"

Jazz and Maddie exchanged glances. "I suppose," Maddie said slowly.

"We'll drop you of at Fenton Works," Jazz interjected, "The ghost shield there is more than enough to protect just you."

"Really? Thanks a bunch, you guys are the best!" He stepped up into the back step and slammed the door shut. The other two walked up, and Jazz stuck her head in to grab a couple of Thermoses. "We'll leave in a second, we just need to clean up the ghosts before they regenerate."

"They can regenerate!" he asked, his face paling anew.

"…You can just stay in the car."

She tossed Maddie one and loped over to the fence. _He shoots one ghost, and it has to be in the middle of the block,_ she thought, gritting her teeth and scrambling over into someone's backyard. Underneath a pool bush laid the luminescent form of a ghost. Its body lit up the area; filtering green through the overhanging leaves and making Jazz realize how dark it had become in the past few hours. Night had fallen, its onslaught hidden by the overcast sky.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw the ghost lurch, and she quickly uncapped and sucked it into the Thermos. It vanished and the area plunged into darkness. Jazz felt a chill go up her spine, but shook it off and hoisted herself back over the fence. _You're such a kid,_ a voice nagged at the back of mind.

"I got it, Mom!" she said, running up.

"Excellent," she said, capping off her own thermos. "Let's move out."

They boarded into the front seats and slammed the doors shut. As Maddie turned the key in the ignition, Jazz twisted around to look at the mayor. He was gazing around nonchalantly at the various control pads that decorated the interior of the RV. "Hey, Mr. Burke," she said, narrowing her eyes as the car engine burst to life and they started to roll forward, "Why didn't you go knock on someone else's door and ask them to let you in?"

"Call me Jon, sweetie. Mr. Burkes was my father's name," he responded cheerfully.

_He… didn't answer the question,_ Jazz thought, just as beeping filled the cabin.

"What's that!" Jon asked, the tone of his voice rising in panic.

"It's Dad!" Jazz gasped, yanking the radio out of her pocket and immediately pressing the talk button. "Hello?" she asked hopefully.

"It's creepy down here!"

Jazz slapped a palm to her forehead. He hadn't found them.

"Yes, Dad. It's creepy. Remember, only shoot it if it attacks you," she moaned.

"I know, I know," he said, obviously not listening to her, "I'm checking in to say that _no_, I have not found them."

"…We figured."

"I've been everywhere the Fenton Tracker says they went, but I haven't seen hide nor hair of 'em. They've apparently disappeared into thin air."

"No, they _haven't_." Jazz insisted, "Where are you now?"

"Where the signal vanished. And you know, they were making a lot of fuss about those 'tear' things being all over the place, but I haven't seen any and I've trekked over practically all of the Ghost Zone following their trail! They sure did a thorough search, I'll give them that."

_Huh,_ Jazz thought,_ The tears have vanished. _

_What could that mean?_

-Metro City-

"Wow, it's sure been awhile from the last attack, hasn't it?" Danny asked. In fact, it had been several hours. They were all seated around the table, which was scattered with takeout containers. Danny since turned back to his human form, much to Uran's disappointment. After Sam and Tucker's usual mealtime argument had died down, they had gone back to discussing the situation. When their theories had become so outlandish that they had actually started to consider a Wulf-Technus fusion, Danny had noticed aloud about how much time had elapsed.

"Hmm," Atomu replied, only half listening.

"Is… something wrong?" Danny slowly inquired, "You're acting weird."

"S' Nothing."

Over the past half hour, Atomu had been becoming more and more restless and detached, and at one point he had even started to pace slowly by the window. It was odd behavior from someone normally so sharply tuned into his surroundings.

Uran had apparently noticed as well, but her reaction was as bizarrely out of character as Atomu's pacing. She was outright glaring at him, watching his every move like a hawk and getting twitchier and twitchier for every minute that passed. Finally, she tapped Danny's shoulder and quietly asked to speak with him in private.

"Uh, sure."

"Good," she muttered, grabbing his arm and practically dragging him off into her room.

As she carefully shut the door, Danny took the time to look around. There were posters of pop bands covering the walls, and the dresser was cluttered with hair decs and jewelry. The neatly tucked comforter on her bed had a picture of a large cartoon frog printed on it, and despite the tidiness it was clear she used it. Everything seemed to be colored in vibrant shades of pink, purple, and turquoise; and the scent of flowers hung vaguely in the air. It was the polar opposite of Atomu's room: bright and lived in.

"So… what's up?" Danny asked, tearing his eyes off the frog blanket. She locked the door, and the solid clack seemed to comfort her.

"He's going to visit that man again," she hissed contemptuously.

"Oh. Ok then." Danny scratched his head. "Isn't that his problem?"

Uran shushed him angrily. "You're a ghost or whatever, so you can fly, right? When he leaves, follow him."

"Look, I don't know what this is about, but-"

"Just follow him, OK? And make it discreet, if he sees you the first thing he'll do is make you go back."

"Then why should I follow him? He obviously doesn't want me to come."

"That's why you're following him!" she snarled, "That man he visits- I don't trust him worth a lick! He's actually hurt my brother several times before, and I'm sick of worrying my self to death every week when he goes over there! So… Please!…" she choked, suddenly looking as if she might cry.

"Woah! Woah! Jeez, I'll do it!" he said frantically.

"Really?" she asked, eyes practically sparkling.

"Sure. Why not."

"Thankyouthankyouthankyou _so_ much!" she blurted, jumping up and hugging him around the waist, sending him stumbling back a few feet. "Hey," he wheezed in astonishment, "No offense, but I kind of need to breathe."

She let go, grinning. "Com'n, let's get out of here." Danny was once again snatched by the wrist and led back out to the table.

"What was that about?" Sam asked incredulously, her eyes going between his look of bewilderment and Uran's elated expression.

He sat down cross-legged at the table. "I…" he glanced at Atomu, who was now sprawled on the couch, aimlessly swinging a dangling foot. "I think I'm forbidden to tell you."

Sam raised an eyebrow. "Whatever, man. You know we'll just grill you for answers later."

Tucker cleared his throat. "We were talking about how an evil version of Wulf may have a Skulker-style suit run by Technus?"

"You _do_ realize how _absurdly ridiculous_ that sentence is, right?" Sam asked.

"Hey, tell me when you got a better one," Tucker replied, digging through the remains of his takeout and finding a leftover piece of beef. To Sam's disgust, he devoured it. They fell into yet another ethical argument, and just as Danny was tuning them out Uran slyly poked him.

"What?" he said, already knowing what she was alerting him of. Across the room, Atomu had gotten up off the couch and was walking quietly towards the office door. He pushed it slightly open and Danny heard him say a few soft words over Tucker and Sam's yammering. As he walked away there was a brief pause in the office. Suddenly he heard the loud rattle of an office chair and Ochanomizu burst through the door, yelling something in Japanese.

Danny was alarmed to see such a placid person with such a desperate-looking expression. _Woah! What's so incredibly evil about this man Atomu's seeing?_

Atomu put one hand on the windowsill and turned to face the onslaught, his face oddly calm for the situation. Uran kneed Danny under the table before leaping up to yell at him too.

Danny sighed and pulled himself to his feet. "I'm going to the restroom," he said to no one in particular. Tucker and Sam were both completely distracted, looking at Uran and Ochanomizu with identical expressions of shock. He wandered over to the restroom and shut the door, muffling the shouting. He didn't bother to lock it, as he wasn't going to be there long.

Danny transformed with a bright flash, the light bouncing of the white tile walls. Concentrating briefly, he vanished and then floated out just as Atomu's quiet voice cut off the other two. He spoke quickly, his expression oddly reserved and mature for his apparent age. The clack of the window pane punctuated the end of his sentence, which Danny took as his cue to leave the apartment. He phased through the wall just in time to see Atomu leap out, falling briefly before catching himself with his rockets.

Danny had expected he'd have to crank up to full speed again to keep up with him, but Atomu was taking his leisurely time. _Odd— he's still wearing his clothes, too,_ Danny thought, _maybe that's why. _Danny knew from personal experience that when flying, any tiny bit of loose clothing could flap furiously. There was a reason he never wore anything more than his usual Hazmat suit in ghost form.

He drummed his fingers on his sides and glanced towards the sun. It was low in the sky now, tinting the light a buttery golden yellow. Out of boredom, he tried to figure out which direction they were going. _The sun rises in the east and sets in the west, and the sun is on the left right now, so that means— I don't know what that means. _He shook his head in confusion. _How did I let Uran talk me into this? _Danny moaned inwardly, looking back to the metropolitan landscape.

And then blinked in surprise at where they were headed. They were approaching a very different part of the city. Unlike the shiny clean skyscrapers that lay behind them, this section looked much older and industrial. Tall smokestacks and steel walled buildings, most of them not operating, gleamed in the golden light. Atomu flicked his rockets and descended, Danny curiously following his lead.

The boy landed inside a gritty chain link fence, blasting up a ring of sun-baked dust. His tag-a-long floated down beside him, glancing around at the vacant area. On either side were tall concrete buildings, casting a cool swath of shadow across the corridor they created. Piles of rubble and leftover machinery pieces lined the pathway, and a few hardy weeds and grasses peeked out from the cracks between the concrete and metal. A warm breeze blew down the path, sending some more loose dust skittering and ruffling the grass blades.

A thought resounded in Danny's head: _Who exactly is this person?_


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11.

Atomu heaved a sigh and murmured something under his breath. He started forward, his boots tapping against the dry, packed soil. Danny slowly floated along behind him, still looking left and right with uncertainty. Atomu reached the end of the path and turned down another one. The sun was shining behind them now, illuminating the entire area. Danny noticed that the "street" here was cleaner, and the parallel rows of buildings had windows and doors facing the center.

He heard a voice behind him and whipped around. Two robots were sitting on a dumpster and waving at Atomu. Their calls of greeting were in synthesized tones, and the thick metal plating covering their bodies was dented and scratched. Atomu smiled and waved back.

Danny noticed now that there were robots stirring everywhere— they peered from shattered windows and rooftops, hung their heads from door frames and the cracks between buildings. Most of them seemed damaged somehow. A few were even missing arms and legs, or the rough equivalent of those for their body design.

And _all_ of them seemed to know Atomu.

The air filled with shouts of "Konnichiwa!" and detached phrases containing his name, a few coming from broken voice boxes and glitchy beyond recognition. The previously empty looking buildings had come alive with mechanical people and creatures— there was even little tin dog yapping from window. Atomu waved happily and tried to respond to as many of the eager greetings as he could.

It occurred to Danny that other than Atomu and Uran, he hadn't seen many not-trying-to-kill-him robots, and now he was surrounded by them.

"Atomu!" a distinctly more human sounding voice called from the side. Atomu looked over and smiled in recognition, immediately running towards the caller. Danny followed him with a swish of his spectral tail. Upon getting a better look, he could only stare in a mixture of horror and fascination. It was another robot, and red-dreadlocked and human-like one of Atomu's league, and… One side of his face looked like an ordinary boy of vaguely Danny's own age; but the other was devoid of skin entirely, Terminator style. The cold metallic skull was clearly visible, and the artificial muscles around his jaw moved smoothly with the rest of his face as he spoke. _Creepy,_ Danny thought, _is that what Atomu looks like under there, too?_

They finally broke contact and Danny followed Atomu as they continued down the path. The shouts had finally died down to a mild, steady murmur as they approached the building at the end of the row. It was a little taller than the rest and perpendicular to the road. Though it wasn't too spectacular in and of itself, it gave off a vibe that set it apart from the others. Atomu walked right up to it and eyed the second story window. He crouched low and leapt, bumping himself up with his rockets. Slapping the ledge with both palms, he swiftly pulled up his legs and vaulted inside. Danny slipped in after him, looking curiously around the sun-bathed room.

It looked like the loft of a mad inventor; everywhere he looked there were tools, sketches, dog-eared manuals, half soldered circuit boards and wires, most sitting on top of work benches and over-flowing shelving units. At the far end there was desk and book shelf surrounded by a partially built torso, a leg, and a single metal hand. _He must build or fix robots,_ Danny thought. Oddly though, the room gave the impression of a relatively neat person. Everything was sorted into piles and tools were either lined up or carefully put away, but there was just so much stuff that it was practically rebelling.

"_Hellooo?_" Atomu yelled, walking over to an open doorway by the desk, "_It's Atomu!_"

Danny peered through the door and saw a dark stairwell. At the bottom it was illuminated where it turned left into another room.

"_I could ascertain that from the ruckus outside,_" a deep voice replied from below, "_Come down here for a second, I'm busy._"

Atomu rolled his eyes and hopped down into the darkness, taking two steps at a time. With a mixture of fear and curiosity, Danny followed. After all that Uran had said, he couldn't help but feel apprehensive. They reached the end of the stairs, and Atomu loped around the corner into the light.

Danny paused for a moment; hovering above the last step. Finally he turned into the room.

-Amity Park-

Maddie and Jazz were clomping quickly down the steps to the basement. They had left Mr. Burke in the living room, praying he would just sit there and not touch anything.

"Now remember," Maddie barked, an armful of full Thermoses under her arm, "Just because there's been a gap between now and the last attack doesn't mean squat! Let's keep our guard up and do this quickly!"

Jazz nodded briskly. Normally, they operated on a catch-and-release basis for benign ghosts and handed the dangerous ones over to Walker, with whom they had developed an uneasy truce. Unfortunately, when Sam and Tucker had tried to contact him earlier that day, they had found the jail under lockdown and surrounded by a massive energy field. In a state of emergency, they had resorted to using the Ghost Containment Unit.

It was a steel frame with transparent green ghost shields projected between the beams, forming a large rectangular prism. Do to its general resemblance to a massive glowing aquarium; it had been wryly dubbed the "Tank," and at the moment it was quite full of "fish."

Maddie walked up briskly and slid up a metal cover on the base, revealing the Thermos port. One by one she emptied them, looking as the ghosts were spat out inside the tank with a vague feeling of unease.

When contained, most animalistic ghosts would clamber at the walls, screaming and howling and scraping in their attempt to escape. The amoebic dogs did nothing of the sort. They drifted idly around the tank, looking half dead and not even bothering to right themselves, instead floating loosely at random angles. Their only reaction to the new additions was to twitch a little to get out of the way.

"Ghost Grabber," Maddie said, turning to Jazz, "and a Fenton Hypodermic." Jazz swiveled around and sprinted off to get the two items. They had both agreed that they would at least try to analyze the ghost's substance before the next attack. Jazz ran back and slapped the needle and the Grabber (a long pole with a remote operated clamp) into her mother's hands. She stuck the Grabber cautiously through the thin green ghost shield, choosing and clamping onto a specimen. The ghost twitched briefly at its grip, but was otherwise unresponsive.

Maddie tugged on the Grabber, flattening what could be loosely approximated as the ghost's back against the shield. She passed the handle to Jazz and carefully extracted a vial of the thick green syrup.

Moving quickly, she turned to an electronics-covered table, squirting a bit between two glass slides and inserting it into a microwave sized machine. Jazz dropped the ghost and walked up to Maddie, who was intently watching the LCD screen on top of the whirring box. Finally it chirped and the results flashed up.

"What's it say?" Jazz asked, craning her neck.

"Huh," Maddie said, "I guess it wasn't pure ectoplasm."

-Metro City-

Danny was mildly disappointed. After all the ado, he'd almost been expecting devil horns and a forked tail; but the older gentleman standing before them was actually rather respectable looking. Slightly curled brown hair stuck out over his forehead, and a well kept goatee grew from his chin. He had an interesting face— between his arched eyebrows and dark eyes was a nose as sharp as a hawk's beak and an odd sort of half smile, framed by his defined jaw line. He wore a modest oil-stained collared shirt and pair of denim pants that fit loosely on his lanky frame, but he carried himself like a man of sophistication.

Of course, his entire appearance was over shadowed by the monstrously huge robot behind him.

"_Ah, Atomu. Your timing is convenient. I just finished replacing the faulty pneumatics in his leg, but the bolt driver is broken, so I can't get the outer panel back on._"

The robot was sitting on an iron crate, filling most of the space in the considerably large room. He looked similar to the construction robot from yesterday, except older, clunkier and even bigger. Faded and scratched paint covered his heavy steel body, some were red and orange decals and some were looked like children's paintings, all worn by time into obscurity. The side of his leg was opened up, exposing an array of wires and heavy-duty pumps surrounding the cylinder of iron that was his tibia.

He too recognized Atomu, but not with the frantic enthusiasm of the robots out on the street. "Good afternoon, Atomu." His voice was a calm, steady rumble.

"_Hey, Zog! I didn't know you were being fixed today!_" Atomu said, his face brightening with a smile as he walked up.

"_And I did not know you would be assisting,_" he replied, his deep voice seeming to thrum in the surrounding air.

Atomu laughed, picking up the large metal plate with apparent effortlessness and fitted it over the gaping hole in the robot's leg. The clean new metal gleamed in contrast to the rest of him. Pressing it in place with one hand, Atomu took a couple of bolts in the other and began screwing them in.

"_I'm surprised that you managed to find these pieces,_" he commented over the loud scraping noises, "_No offense, Zog, but they're not exactly making your parts anymore._"

Zog turned his head slowly down to look at Atomu. "_You are lucky to get Ministry funded remodels._"

The man cleared his throat. "_Actually, it wasn't that difficult. I just hammered a Brau 1589 model's chest plate. The pneumatics were pretty standard._"

Atomu twisted in the last bolt and stepped back. "_You're good to go, Zog. I'd stay and talk to you, but Tenma and I need to speak in private._"

"_I see. Have a nice evening,_" Zog thrummed and slowly got to his feet, his thick metal shell's groaning accompanied by the soft hiss of pneumatics. He left through the huge opening to the right of the room, and Tenma followed his retreating form, pressing a large button on the wall and making a massive aluminum shutter begin to roll down. With a clash of metal on smooth pavement, the outside world was cut off.

"_I understand you know him from when—_"

"_Yes._"

"_…Ah._"

There was a brief silence.

"_So what do you wish to speak to me about so urgently?_"

Atomu gestured towards the stairwell. "_Let's talk up there. I know robots aren't much for eavesdropping, but I really don't want rumors about this escaping._"

Tenma raised his eyebrows and went after him as he started up to the second floor. "_Force an old man to walk to walk up the stairs, will you?_" he said in a mock old-geezer voice.

"_Psh! What, do you want to be carried?_" Atomu responded.

"_Oh, certainly!_"

Atomu turned and glared at him.

"_I was kidding,_" he added sarcastically.

The boy rolled his eyes and clomped up the stairs. They emerged in the loft, and Tenma pulled up a chair by the work bench and sat down.

"_Continue,_" he said.

"_Well, I actually just want to search your knowledge of a particular subject,_" Atomu answered, scooting onto the sole clear area of the worktable, "_What do you know about dimensional travel?_"

Tenma paused. "_Eh… well, I was on the team that confirmed the existence of other dimensions… but we never got that far…_" he leaned forward, and the chair creaked beneath him. "_What on earth makes you bring up that topic?_"

Atomu sighed. "_Because apparently it's possible to do it by accident._"

_Nope_, Danny thought, _I can't understand a word they're saying. _He adjusted himself so he was sitting cross-legged in midair and firmly planted a hand on his cheek. _Why am I here again? Oh right, Uran. _He glanced back at them briefly as the man's voice rose in skepticism, causing Atomu to start to talk faster and start gesturing with his hands. _I don't know what her problem is. I mean, they're just _talking._ And talking and talking and talking and…_

He spun idly in a circle before uncoiling and floating along side the wall. The work table wrapped around three walls, jutting out like a shelf. After long hours of his father forcing him to help in the lab, Danny considered himself fairly proficient at soldering circuit boards, but the ones here were beyond his recognition. They were also so mind bogglingly complicated he was surprised the man hadn't gone blind.

The desk caught his eye— it was against the only wall that was not dominated by workbench. He floated over, examining the half constructed torso by the jammed-full bookcase before turning his attention to the writing table. Most of it was just covered in more thick books with bindings and covers in Japanese script, but the rest of it had more interesting curios. On the far right corner was an impressive stack of Post-its, surrounded by the little origami cranes and horses and cicadas they had been made into. Rows and rows of neatly written Japanese characters peeked out of their crisp folds. On top of a book pile on the left was a collection of Rubik's cubes in varying sizes and shapes, all of them solved. Next to the post-its was a chipped white mug packed full of screwdrivers and ball point pens in varying states of grunginess, and in the center of the desk was a black monitor and keyboard that had been pushed back to make room for the severed mechanical hand he had noticed before.

There was an odd lack of any personal touches— all the books appeared to be boring and mechanics related, the little army of folded creatures kept clear of the workspace. Danny was about to turn away in boredom when he noticed something poking out from between the books and the wall.

A picture frame.

Immediately consumed by curiosity, Danny craned his neck around to try and get a better look, but it was useless— it was too close to the wall. He glanced behind, and seeing that they were still deep in conversation, cautiously became tangible. Careful not to bump anything, he stretched his arm across the desk and tugged on the edge of the frame. With agonizing slowness, the picture came into view.

It looked like it had been shot in front of the Ministry of Science building, and quite some time ago. The man was much younger looking in the photo, perhaps in his late twenties. His face was smoother, his eyes brighter, and his hair a shade of brown less tainted by gray. He wore tailored black suit and Ministry official badge, and his expression was somewhere between apathy and discontent. A child of about nine clutched his hand, wearing a school uniform and a wide smile. His eyes were a liquid brown with long eyelashes, and his short dark hair was gelled into two spikes.

He looked exactly like Atomu.

Danny's brain ground to halt. He was unsure how much time passed before his neurons started firing again.

…_What?_

_What!_

What was— this picture— this boy? Danny whipped his head back and forth between the two. Finally he just stared at the photo.

_H— how?_

Atomu essentially _was_ the boy in the picture. The only differences were very subtle— a few stray hairs, a little ruddiness in the skin, the off-white color of the teeth and eyes; whereas Atomu was set apart by his unsettling perfection.

Danny frantically tried to figure out what on earth it could possibly mean, but all that came up were more questions. _Why is there a kid who looks like Atomu? How did this man know that boy? Did he build Atomu? After this boy? Why? Where is this boy now? What happened to him? What's going on! _

Some old thoughts floated past. How Atomu had said that Ochanomizu had reactivated him and nothing more. How conceptually strange it was to make a million horsepower robot that looked like a child. The bizarre quarrel that had risen when Atomu left. Uran ranting about how she couldn't understand human obsessions, yelling "Ask him about things like that!"

_Uran._ The name drew him out of his mental frenzy, and he silently scowled and gritted his teeth. _You better have an explanation for this._

"_What? Half ghost? How is it possible to be half dead?_" Tenma asked incredulously.

"_I'm not sure. He briefly mentioned that the ghosts are more like creatures that have "ghost-like" abilities than spirits of the dead, but I'm afraid I don't really know how any of it works; you'd have to ask him yourself,_" Atomu said, lazily swinging his legs back and forth. "_What I've seen him do so far is both impressive and defies all logic. He can fly without effort, pass through solid objects harmlessly, turn invisible…_"

He paused as his voice warped slightly, as if he had been talking while facing a wall. It quickly passed, followed by a misplaced breeze. He narrowed his eyes.

"_Speaking of which._"


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12.

His hand shot out like a snake strike, and Danny gave a shout as he felt his leg being yanked back. Crap! Atomu could do that echolocation thing… he had forgotten to turn intangible again! Guiltily, he flickered back into view and looked over his shoulder.

"Dude, you nearly gave me a heart attack," he complained.

"Your heart wasn't beating in the first place. Who sent you, Uran or Ochanomizu?" Atomu had regained the look of irritation he had worn back at the security bot attack.

"Uran. Also, I may not have a pulse, but I do have a shin bone. Please stop crushing it." Atomu's death-grip slowly unlocked and Danny quickly pulled his leg away, rubbing it. "Jeez, it's not like I'm going to run away—"

He looked up and noticed the man, who was staring at him in silent fascination. Suddenly feeling every not-inconspicuous inch between him and the ground, he swiveled and put his feet firmly on the floor.

"Uh, hello sir."

The man eyed him strangely, frowning slightly at the recognition.

"He doesn't speak English," Atomu sighed, turning to Tenma. They exchanged a few words.

"_This is the Danny I was speaking of._"

"_Fascinating…_" he said, staring at Danny's faintly glowing form, "_Are you sure you don't know how he manages to do that?_"

"_You'll have to ask him yourself,_" Atomu remarked.

He gave a short laugh. "_Shame__ he doesn't speak Japanese,_" he said with an odd thoughtfulness.

"And Danny, this is Dr. Tenma. Since I acknowledge that you were forced into this, and can't understand what we're saying anyways, I don't care if you stay. Just keep quiet for a while, I'm seeing if he can do anything to help your situation."

Danny started to complain that he had been leaving when Atomu had caught him, but was distracted by the second comment.

"How much have you told him?" he asked sharply.

"Everything."

"What? Even about me!"

"Danny, I know you've said you're paranoid, but honestly, _you're from another dimension_. Nobody here really cares you're a half-ghost, because it's amazing you even _look_ human."

Danny glowered at him.

Atomu sighed. "Look, I trust Tenma—"

"Ochanomizu and Uran sure don't."

Atomu raised a hand. "Let me reword that. Although I don't necessarily trust him, Tenma is a brilliant man and we can't afford not asking him if he can help. Do you _want_ to be stuck here forever?"

Danny stalled long enough for Tenma to slip in a comment, and they started to talk again before he could rebuke.

"_I'm afraid that I personally cannot help you and your companion, but I do know someone who most likely can. He was one of that research team I was on for the dimensional studies, and if my memory does not fail me, he was working on it long after we stopped._"

"_Great! Do you know who it was?_"

"_That, unfortunately, does escape me. I probably have records of the project, but I'll have to go down and search for them._"

Danny watched sullenly as Tenma got up and walked past them, disappearing down the stairs. "Where's he going?"

"He said he knew someone who would know more than him."

Danny gave a snort, when his eyes were drawn back to the desk and he remembered why he had been leaving in the first place. He drifted over quietly as Atomu stared out the window, drumming his fingers on the edge of the workbench. Danny picked up the picture frame with a small scrape, and behind him Atomu commented, "You know, I wouldn't touch anything. He's kind of OCD about how he arranges his stuff—" Danny turned around and flipped the picture so Atomu could see it.

Atomu's fingers froze.

"You caught me when I was leaving… I was going off to ask Uran what this was. Who is that boy and why does he look like you?"

Atomu was silent.

Danny was about to repeat the question when he finally spoke.

"…He still has that…" His voice was small and quiet; he seemed to be saying it more to himself than to Danny. There was an implacable emotion on his face, somewhere between shock and poignancy.

"Who is it? Is it you?" Atomu glanced up at Danny, vague discomfort adding itself to his expression. He drew his knees up to his chest and looked away.

"No."

He paused again.

"That's Toby."

"Why do you look like him?" Danny repeated.

"My design was based on him."

Danny realized that for all the one and a half days he had known Atomu, this was the first time he had seen him actually acting like a child.

"Then… where is he now? Is there a person running around who looks exactly like you?"

"He's dead."

It was Danny's turn to be silent. "…Oh." he said, his arms slowly falling to his sides. _How is it possible to answer questions in a way that raises even more?_ He thought in frustration. He still had a bazillion things he didn't understand, but the conversation had become so awkward he wasn't sure he _wanted_ to continue.

They were interrupted by Tenma's clipped footsteps returning up the stairs. He carried something large, bulky, and metal under his arm.

"_Sorry, I didn't find it. I know those record papers are in there somewhere, but it would take a far more intensive search to find them._"

"_I see. What's under your arm?_" Atomu asked suspiciously.

"_Ah, well,_" Tenma said, walking up to Danny with what Danny had just realized was some sort of helmet, "_You said I should ask him myself._"

"_What are you!—_ " Before Danny could react or step away, Tenma had placed it on his head and pressed a button on the back, making it clamp in from all sides. Confused, he started to reach up, but his hands were only half way there when he felt a mind-shattering jolt and collapsed.

A few seconds later, the fuzz began to fade and Danny's brain slowly began to work again. He felt kind of dizzy, like he had just taken a heavy blow to the head, but with none of the pain. The buzz in his ears was fading, and he realized Atomu was shouting at him. His eyes fluttered open, but most of his vision was out-of-focus and obscured by the blurry orange fireworks around the edges of his vision. Feeling was returning to his body, and he realized through the angry onslaught of pins and needles that he was sitting down in the desk chair. In the haze, he heard a sentence with odd clarity.

"私は言っていること分かっていますか？"

He blinked, and the fog cleared a little. Danny could see Atomu now— he had stopped yelling, and was staring back at Tenma with one hand on Danny's shoulder. "何？" he asked, an appalled look creeping across his face. Tenma merely repeated the question.

He felt the words sinking in now. _Watashi wa… iteiru… _he… knew that. Something freshly seared into his mind clicked with those words. The way they were strung together was completely alien, but he knew enough of them to rationalize a sentence.

"_Can you understand me?"_

Danny was too dazed to do anything more than answer yes.

Atomu's eyes widened at his response, and he seemed to swivel around and explode at Tenma. "_You actually— that's __neural alteration!__ Is that machine even __tested?"_

"Of course. It was a Ministry funded project."

"_This thing is practically a __prototype!__ The versions of this today are __still__ experimental and have only been used on people in a specific state of sleep! Do you want to put him in a __coma?"_ He quickly reached around the back of the helmet, clicking the release button and angrily handing it to Tenma.

Meanwhile, Danny was starting to get a low-key headache, which was not improved by the Japanese flying past his ears at lightning pace. Only the individual words seemed to make sense, and slowly it dawned on him that he was listening to Japanese sentence structure.

"_I assure you, it's quite safe. I've used it many times myself when I don't have time to read a large quantity of information._"

"_That would be far more reassuring if you weren't already mad as a hatter. Excuse me, but I think I'll be taking him back to the Ministry to check for __brain damage_." He turned back to Danny. "Can you stand?"

Glad that someone was finally speaking English, he replied "I feel fine," and got to his feet.

"_Ah well, and I was hoping to ask him a few questions,_" Tenma remarked, his voice betraying his amusement as he watched Atomu drag Danny over to the window. "_What do you want me to do when I find the files?_"

Atomu stomped up on the work bench and glowered at him. "_Come down to the Ministry. Bring any research papers you find with you._"

Tenma raised an eyebrow. "_Are you sure that's wise? The last time you told me to do that, the guards had me in handcuffs before you had even reached the ground floor._"

"_I'll forewarn them. Just be there at 10 AM sharp, or they'll start to get fidgety. Anything involving you seems to get them fidgety._"

"_Of course,_" he said suavely, "_Don't worry, I'm always punctual._"

Danny drifted off the floor, rubbing his forehead. He had preferred it when Japanese had meaningless syllables— now every time they spoke (and they spoke _fast_), his brain went into overdrive trying to decode what they were saying.

Finally they finished trading verbal blows and Atomu yanked Danny out the window. It was almost night now— the sun had vanished beyond the skyscrapers, leaving only a shrinking pale yellow glow. Behind them, a dark starry sky was encroaching, and Danny could hear the dozens of crickets it had brought out chirping below them. He would've liked to fly lower, but Atomu pulled him higher, furiously asking him if he was feeling OK, were his senses impaired, did he hurt anywhere, did he have a headache, how strong was the pain, where was it coming from, could he please respond in complete sentences, was he dizzy, did he feel faint.

Somewhere between mindlessly answering questions, the full implications of what had just happened hit him, and he stopped in midair. Atomu backfired, worriedly grabbing his shoulder when Danny finally spat out "Is he always like that? He didn't even give me a damn warning, he just walked up and fried my fricking brain! It's no wonder Ochanomizu and Uran hate him!"

Atomu gave a grim smile. "Tenma," he said with a little melancholy, "isn't really notable for his… empathy."

Danny gritted his teeth and snarled "Why doesn't he know English, anyway? He's wearing a Ministry badge in that picture, and everyone else at the damn place seems to speak it."

Atomu sighed. "Tenma no longer works at the Ministry for— reasons, but when he did it was a very different place. Robotics had just become a popular field, and countries had begun to hide their breakthroughs from one another as an attempt to best each other. Japan was no exception— the Ministry is very open nowadays, but back then it was strictly local."

"Reasons?" Danny asked, looking at him curiously.

Atomu made a bitter face. "…Yes. After he finished building me he had a sort of falling out with—"

"He built you!"

"I thought that was obvious," Atomu said, frowning slightly.

"Well— I guess it was, but—" _but I'm just surprised you admitted it._

Filtering into their silence was the distant static of traffic and the steady rush of Atomu's rockets, which cast a flickering orange glow that contrasted with his own pale white luminescence. To the right, the city had begun to flicker to life with an ocean of cool blue streetlights; the jutting dark skyline framed by the sun's last few dying rays.

"Com'n," Atomu muttered, tugging his arm and swooping off towards the twinkling steel skyscrapers.

Danny followed, taking with him a million unanswered questions.


	13. Chapter 13

Author Note:

New character. Movie people will recognize him from the beginning of the film as Toby's teacher, which he was in the originals, though he certainly was a much more major character back in the day. He's also a man of _way_ too many names.

Wally Kisagiri/Mustachio/Albert Duncan/Daddy Walrus = Shansaku Ban (nickname Higeoyaji, which means something like Old Man Mustache)

Chapter 13.

They were well over the city now. The bright multicolored glow shone upwards, lighting them from beneath. Atomu felt a little twitchy; it was already 8:16 and Ochanomizu and Uran were no doubt going to be frothing at the bit. He wanted to get back soon too, if nothing else to chase down Uran and put her in a headlock. But Danny was with him— the teen had shown signs of strain at his normal high-altitude cruising speed, to say nothing of how he'd just had his brain fried with the Japanese dictionary.

They were going back under 50 kph, whether Atomu wanted to or not.

He looked over at Danny, who was staring dazedly at something a ways off. Atomu pulled up a little so he could see over him— it was a commercial center full of brilliantly flashing holographic and LED billboards, displaying advertisements in various obnoxious colors. Atomu groaned in realization. "How many of those can you read?"

"Uh…"

Danny paused for a second.

"All of them."

Atomu made an anguished noise and started muttering furiously under his breath. "Not only the spoken language, but— that's a vast quantity of information! Was he trying to kill you!" his growling turned inaudible over the rushing breeze.

Danny glanced back at the signs, but immediately looked away, rubbing his shoulders in discomfort. It was kind of freaking him out, feeling himself instantly recognize what had been meaningless symbols less than an hour ago, even if barely any of them made sense as whole sentences or phrases.

Atomu was heatedly mumbling something inaudible except for the occasional "Tenma." Danny briefly puzzled over their bizarre relationship— neither of them seemed that fond of each other, and yet (according to Uran) they visited each other every week? _Oh joy, another question,_ Danny thought, _Add it to the freaking pile._

The Ministry building came into view as they rounded a particularly tall skyscraper, and Atomu's muttering came to an abrupt stop.

"Do you hear that?"

"What?"

"Nothing."

Danny looked at Atomu in confusion as the boy assumed an expression of concentration.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me!" he blurted out.

"What! What is it!"

"A fight in the lobby! Com'n!" he yelled, blasting off towards the huge ground floor entrance. Danny sped after him, frantically asking if it was another ghost.

Atomu laughed. "No, no!" he shouted over the roar of wind, "It's just the night shift guards being oblivious and Higeoyaji being suicidally stubborn!" He swooped up and over the huge Museum of Natural History style stairs, backfiring close enough to scorch the glass doors. Danny cautiously turned invisible before flicking back into view as human and following.

Inside, it was pandemonium. A good forty people were clustered around one end of the room, with more running up or watching in confusion from the lobby chairs. Some were Ministry types, but the overwhelming majority looked like normal citizens. Over the ruckus of the crowd, Danny could hear what very clearly sounded like a fight.

Atomu paused a moment to take it all in before stiffening and walking purposefully forward.

"_THAT'S ENOUGH! LET ME THROUGH!_" he barked, his voice unusually powerful for his small body.

A ripple of turning heads went through the crowd, and it quickly fell silent save for Atomu's quick footsteps and the distant sound of brawling. With a low murmur, they started to spread apart, staring at Atomu as he went past with a look of astonishment. Danny hurried behind him, trying to ignore the dozens of eyes that were also boring into his skin.

What was at the center of the circle was not exactly what he had been expecting— Several security guards (of the human variety) were sprawled on the floor nursing injuries, while the non-incapacitated ones were struggling to bring down a single rotund man, whom had already succeeded in putting one in a chokehold. He wore a spotted bow tie and grey suit, and though the black hair on his head had all but receded to the sides, he sported an impressive white mustache.

"_STOP!_"

They all froze like statues, staring at Atomu as he approached.

"_What on earth happened here? Higeoyaji, let go of that poor man. You're squeezing the life out of him!_"

One of the security men immediately snapped to attention and blurted "_He tired to use the elevator without a pass, Atomu sir! We did not know he was your acquaintance!_" Danny, who was still having a hard time getting everything they said, understood enough to find it vaguely hilarious that a grown man in uniform was addressing a nine-year-old in street clothes as his superior.

"_Now wait a minute!_" Higeoyaji protested, dropping the man, "_All I did is forget it! I've been through here a million times before. I would expect even a common idiot to recognize me!_"

Atomu slapped a palm against his forehead. "_You could've at least tried calling the room before, say, beating up the half the security force!_"

"_You call this security force? I've yet to find one who can take a punch!_"

Atomu folded his arms and raised his eyebrows in expectation.

"…_I forgot my phone, too._"

_"WHAT.__"_

"_I expected you to be at your house, not at the Ministry!_"

"_That explains the pass, but not the __phone,"_ Atomu said in exasperation, "_Were you asleep when you left the house?_"

"_I'll have you know I was in a tremendous hurry!_" he huffed, straightening his grey suit, "_I have a theory of vital importance to discuss with you and Ochanomizu!_"

Atomu glanced back at Danny and the crowd before suddenly switching gears.

"_Sorry for the confusion, Tamao,_" he said to the security man, "_We'll be on our way now. Hopefully I don't need a pass?_" The guard flushed, but stepped aside and ordered the others to do the same.

Behind Danny the mob of people stared to break up, chattering among themselves. Danny half listened, only able to discern occasional snatches of speech. _"…did you hear how he yelled 'stop' at them?…never seen him in person, he seems so much smaller than on the…he was fighting a robot on the news program earlier today, wasn't he?…it's amazing how much he looks like a real kid…"_

Atomu pulled on Danny's arm, and they followed Higeoyaji as he bustled into the elevator. "_What's so urgent?_" Atomu asked as the doors slid shut.

Higeoyaji frowned at Danny. "_Who's he?_"

"_A friend._"

"_Oh! Well, in that case I'll have to introduce myself!_" he thrust out a hand. "_Good evening! I'm Ban Shunsaku, but everyone calls me Higeoyaji. I used to teach Atomu when he was in grade school, but I'm mainly a private investigator these days. What's your name?_"

Danny gave him a dazed stare for a few seconds before slowly taking the handshake. "_Uh… good evening._"

Higeoyaji's eyebrows shot up, and Atomu stifled a snort of laughter.

"_Does he speak Japanese?_" Higeoyaji asked.

Danny could understand that much. He sighed and looked at Atomu. "Is it that obvious?"

"YES." Atomu replied.

Higeoyaji's eyebrows somehow went an inch higher. "_English!_"

Danny nodded.

"_He seems to understand what we're saying, though_."

"_He can, don't worry._"

Danny glanced around and realized that they were still just standing around in the elevator. "…Is anyone going to push the button?"

Atomu vaguely waved a hand, "There's plenty of elevators, we're not holding anyone up. Just let him speak."

"Ok ok." Danny griped.

"_You were saying, Higeoyaji?_"

"_Ah! Well, you know those three robot attacks that happened recently? I think they're connected!_"

Danny and Atomu exchanged a glance. "…_they are._" Atomu said.

"_You already know? Tell me everything, I want to know!_" he insisted, leaning forward with interest.

"_Only if Danny lets me,_" Atomu snarked, turning to the teenager.

Danny, who was still having trouble discerning much of anything being said, replied "Huh?"

"He wants to know what's been going on around here. Everything."

"Go ahead," Danny moaned, "You've already told Tenma everything. I've lost all reasonable objections to you telling people who are actually trustworthy." Atomu rolled his eyes and dived into the long winded explanation.

Danny slumped against the wall and tried to turn off his brain. The fatigue that had been building up over the day was catching up with him. It was familiar sensation— between school, hunting ghosts, and homework; he had developed the sleep patterns of an insomniac. It had actually been getting better with the recent removal of "Valerie and parents trying to kill you" from the list, but it was back full-force now that the universe had dropped this in his lap. Another universe, that is_. I feel more tired than I have in a long, long time. I can't even remember when this day began._

"Hello?" He felt Atomu poke his arm. Danny pushed away his tiredness and flicked open his eyes. "What?"

"I finished explaining— Higeoyaji wants to know if he can see."

"No," he said, pressing the button for the top floor. "I want to get to the room. If he sticks around long enough he'll get to see anyways."

"Whatever," Atomu remarked, turning around and translating the response. Higeoyaji seemed disappointed.

"_Aw, com'n! Atomu's already gone and made me all curious!_" he complained, leaning on a handrail as the elevator tugged swiftly upward. Danny paused for a second, examining a hand in detachment before plunging it through the thick steel wall.

Higeoyaji's eyes widened. "_Would you look at that!_" he exclaimed, leaning forward and grinning, "_Doesn't that hurt any?_"

Danny shook his head, pulling back his arm as the doors slid open. They walked up to the familiar Number 31 placard, Danny attempting to ignore the excited questions Higeoyaji was bombarding him with. Atomu flicked up a little metal cover plate under the room number, revealing a number pad. He punched in the password, causing a lock to click somewhere in wall. Cautiously, he put a hand on the doorknob.

Danny frowned. "What are you—" With a blinding burst of energy, Atomu flung open the door and shot into the apartment screaming "URAN!" An impressively high shriek pierced the air, followed by frantic thumping. Danny and Higeoyaji walked in to see Uran and Atomu wrestling furiously across the ground.

Atomu pinned Uran's shoulder to the floor with a loud smack and started digging his knuckles into the back of her head, inciting more thrashing and indignant shrieks. "_When I say I want to go alone, I want! To go! Alone!_" he shouted.

"_What's all this?_" Higeoyaji asked in amusement.

Uran looked up at him, her head tilting at an uncomfortable angle from the floor. "_Hello, Higeoyaji._" she said meekly.

"_Oh please, don't look at me like that. You aren't even fighting back properly! Do that judo technique I taught you!_"

Danny carefully stepped around Uran's flailing limbs and went to go sit down with Sam and Tucker, who were watching the robot kids from over the back of the couch. It was apparently more interesting than the Power Rangers-like show on the TV was playing.

"Did Uran tell you two?"

"She's not particularly good at keeping secrets," Tucker commented.

"What was that all about anyway? I asked her where Atomu was going, but she refused to say anything."

"Oh, he went to see some old guy— not that one. That's Higeoyaji."

"Great. More unpronounceable Japanese names," Tucker moaned.

"Who did he see, then?" Sam asked.

"His name's Tenma, and he supposedly knows someone who can help us. He's— apparently also kind of a jerk."

"Kind of a jerk?"

"OK, he's really a jerk. In any case, he's coming tomorrow at ten."

"Oh!" Atomu piped up, and the tussling behind them stopped. "That reminds me. Ochanomizu!"

There was some shuffling and the study door cracked open. "_What is it— Shunsaku! How are you!_"

"_Ha! I'm fine, how are you? I haven't seen you in awhile, Ochanomizu!_"

Atomu stood up, letting Uran flee to the other side of the couch. He interrupted them with a cough. "_Tenma's coming tomorrow at ten. Warn the guards, so they don't dog-pile him or something._"

There was a silence long enough to make Danny peer back over the couch and try to figure out what had Atomu had just said. It had contained Tenma's name, so the reaction couldn't possibly be goo—

"_TENMA!_" Higeoyaji bellowed.

"_What?_" Ochanomizu yelped in disbelief.

"_He has information that could help get those three back home._"

"_Now see here!_"

"_I've already told him to do it, so he's coming whether you want him to or not. Just warn the guards._"

A very, very familiar sounding argument started up behind them, and Danny turned away to shrug at his friends in indifference. "Same old," he commented.

Uran was now sulking at their feet, remote clasped in both hands like a vice. She took a moment to flip the channel to a magical girl anime and glare up at Danny. "_Traitor,_" she muttered.

"Hey! I didn't do anything, he caught _me!_"

She whipped her head back around, staring at him.

…Did you just reply to me? she said slowly. Danny shut his trap and glanced away. _Oh lord, here it comes…_

"Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! You did, you totally did! Don't look at me like that! Atomu, when did Danny learn Japanese?"

"What!" Tucker and Sam asked in astonishment.

The argument behind them stopped and Atomu irritably answered "When Tenma stuck a neural alteration device on him, out of the blue, just to ask him a question."

"Tenma did what!" Ochanomizu yelled, appalled. "Couldn't you have—"

"I didn't ask for anyone to come along, and this is why. Tenma just doesn't behave himself around humans that well."

"Then _why_ is he coming here, again?"

"He also just happens to be our only lead. Though I may be wrong, I believe that our guests would like to make it back home before they die of old age."

He then did the quietest, most polite version of the "I'm stomping off to my room" trick Danny had ever seen.

As soon as Atomu vanished into his room, Uran immediately went back to bugging him. "Say something in Japanese!" she chanted.

"You seriously know Japanese now?" Sam asked, incredulous.

"How is that even possible!" Tucker said.

"It's not something to be celebrated," Ochanomizu commented, "Neural alteration can easily kill people if done wrong. If it was me I'd be dragging you off to the medical wing— but Atomu seems to think you're fine, and I trust his judgment."

"…You just question it highly," Danny commented dryly.

"Sometimes, yes," he sighed, "_Shunsaku, we can talk in the office. I trust that you have come up with many interesting theories about the situation?_"

The man grumbled, his mustache twitching with animosity. "_Tenma! I don't trust that no-good bastard one inch. How can you let Atomu keep seeing him?_"

"_Well, I can't exactly stop him, can I?_" The clack of the study door cut off their conversation.

"Say something!" Uran insisted.

"No."

"Pleeeease?" Sam asked.

"Yeah! I wanna hear it!" Tucker said.

"_Good evening._"

Uran gave a shriek of laughter. "Your accent is horrible!"

"Well _excuse_ me." Danny moaned.

"What does _konbanwa_ mean?" Sam asked excitedly, leaning towards him.

"Uh…" he paused, trying to find a link between the word and English. "Good evening, I guess."

"Oh come on, say something more creative than that!" she complained. "I'm frigging jealous of you right now, and you don't want to say anything!"

"Since when did you want to learn Japanese?" Danny said curiously.

"Oh," she shrugged apathetically, "I watch anime sometimes. English dubbing tends to suck, and subtitles are hard to find. Also I'm stuck in Japan right now, you know? It would seem to be a pretty useful situational skill."

"Say 'I can speak Japanese!'" Uran squealed.

"…I said creative," Sam muttered sardonically as Danny rubbed his temple in thought.

"_Uh… I… is Japanese speak can?"_

Uran promptly died of laughter.

"There you have it! I'm a failure." He said, throwing his hands up in exasperation.

"It is pretty ironic." They jumped, and Danny peered over the couch at Atomu. He was standing at the far end of the living room with his arms folded loosely across his chest. "Do you understand words, but not syntax?"

"If by that you mean what order the words go in, then yes."

"Hm, and you probably don't know any slang or idiomatic expressions, not to mention double negatives. No wonder you kept getting that blank expression in the elevator."

Uran poked her head around the bottom of the couch, glaring at him with reproach. "You're awful quick to come out of your room."

"Yes, and if you try to start another argument about Tenma I'm going straight back."

Uran uttered a bizarrely low and realistic growl, making the three teenagers jump in alarm.

"You realize that recording doesn't scare me," Atomu said.

Uran sniffed disdainfully and went back to watching the girl on television fight a lizard monster, but Danny's eyes lingered. He was repressing the strong compulsion to walk up and shake some answers out of him. Atomu glanced at him, the eye contact making Danny flinch and slump back down in his seat.

"Are you OK?" Sam asked, her voice quieter than usual, "You look tired."

"Eh… this day has seriously been too long. What is it, ten o clock?"

"8:58," Atomu and Uran said in unison.

"Woah! Do you two have internal clocks or something?" Tucker exclaimed, grinning.

Atomu shrugged. "It's fairly standard."

"Actually, Danny brings up a good point," Sam commented, "Where're we sleeping?"

"Oh, right!" Atomu said thoughtfully, "There's definitely not enough beds for all of you, so…"

"I take the floor!" Sam yelled, vaulting over the back of the couch and flopping down on the wood boards.

"What beds are there?" Tucker asked warily. Sam got an evil glint in her eye and swiftly jaguar-crawled over to the couch, snatching his dangling arm.

"Noo!" he wailed, struggling as she tried to drag him off, "At least let me have the couch!"

"Floor, bitch!"

"…That's all three of you for the floor then?" Atomu asked.

"It seems so," Danny replied as Sam succeeded in pulling Tucker off with a series of loud thumps and wailing.

"Jerks!" he whined, rolling onto his back and feeling around for his red cap, "Are there even any sleeping bags or something here?"

"Uran!" Atomu called, "Could you go bother the maid for three futons?"

"No."

Atomu rolled his eyes. "I'll be back in a sec," he sighed, walking out of the room. The instant the door clicked, Uran scrambled up and demanded Danny tell her absolutely everything.

"Uh… pretty much everything important you've already heard…"

"No! I want meticulous details!"

Danny hesitated, then said "We visited a man named Tenma."

"AUGH!" She yelled, clawing at him as he fled over the back of the couch, "How can someone who can turn invisible be such a useless spy?"

Sam sat up. "Sorry to break up your lovely spat, but do you guys have a shower? Or maybe a change of clothes?"

With a mood change so fast the crunch of shifting gears was practically audible, Uran blurted "Oh, sure! Here, let me show you the bathroom." Smiling pleasantly, she hopped over the arm rest and took Sam's hand as she stood up. "I don't think we have any changes in pants, but I can have Atomu get you a Ministry visitor shirt."

They vanished from view, and Tucker promptly scrambled back up on the couch.

"You're such a cream puff," Danny said, grinning teasingly.

"So I enjoy being comfortable. You got a problem with that?" he huffed, shoving his hands in his pockets. "Ow!" he muttered, taking out the object he had just jammed his hand into.

It was the radio. They barely had to exchange a glance before Tucker quickly punched in the contact number for Jazz.

There was a brief pause before the screen flicked up _No Signal Found_.

"Geeze, you had me going there for a second," Danny groaned.

Tucker slipped the radio back in his pocket. "Huh… well, you can't really expect it to work across a dimension, can you? I mean, your mom and dad are brilliant, but…"

"Of course. Nothing can ever be that easy," Danny sighed, slouching down into his seat.

"Hey, I'm worried about all this, too. Sam probably doesn't give a crap about whether her parents ever see her again, but I definitely care."

Vague voices floated in from the other rooms of the apartment, filling the gap in their conversation.

"I should probably sleep on the floor anyways. I mean, you two aren't going to _do_ anything, right?"

"What? No!" Danny protested, springing back up with his face slightly redder, "We're in someone else's house, dude!"

"Fine, fine," Tucker said, waving his hands as he discreetly rolled his eyes off to the side, "I was just checking— You usually act so normal around each other. I have no clue what you, uh, _do_ in your spare time."

"You're horrible," Danny muttered.

Uran wandered back into the living room as the shower head began rushing in the background, and she spent the next few minutes bothering Danny for information.

Eventually Atomu came back, carrying an improbably high load of blankets, pillows, mats, and a single medium size white Ministry of Science T-shirt. As usual, he showed no exertion whatsoever.

"Hey, Uran, I got your message, but I'm afraid they didn't have any in black," he said, heaving the load onto the floor with a loud flump. The water shut off in the bathroom and Sam's voice said, "Aw, really? Damn, there goes my record."

Uran grabbed the shirt off the floor and ran over, cracking open the door a tiny bit to hand it to Sam. "Huh," her muffled voice said, "At least has a cool design. What's the writing say?"

Her and Uran started to talk while Tucker curiously asked "Message? Like a wireless message? Is that standard too?" Atomu confirmed this and Tuck started barraging him with more questions. Danny sat to the side, feeling conflicted over whether he should tell him to stuff it or not.

"You're awful nosy!" Uran called from the other room just as Sam finally emerged from the shower, straightening her rumpled white Tee and plaid skirt. Her hair was damp, and she walked barefoot, holding her high black boots in one hand. The hot water had washed the eyeliner and shadow off her face, but left a flush in her cheeks.

"Either of you filthy boys going to wash up?" she asked, tossing the boots over by the table.

"Nope."

"Took a shower this morning."

"Then get off that damned couch and set up your beds."

"Yes Sam," they said in unison.

They got off, Tucker kicking open his bed roll and immediately curling up on it, burying himself in blankets until he wasn't visible.

"Tuck? We're going to need some of those," Sam commented, kneeling impatiently on her futon. The pile of blankets did not respond. "Seriously, you're incorrigible," she said, yanking some off and causing muffled protests.

"Good night, all of you," Atomu said, flicking off the lights.

"You forgot the curtains, Atomu," Uran quipped, drawing them and shutting off the glare of the city lights. The room fell dark.

"I was wondering how anyone in a windowed room got any sleep here," Danny murmured, lying down on his place between Sam and Tucker, listening to Uran as she softly padded out of the room.

"Hey, Danny?" Tucker said, the blankets rustling as he pulled them back off his head.

"Oh, shut up," Danny muttered in the darkness. "I desire sleep."

"Fine," he mumbled, and the room fell silent.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14.

Danny wasn't sure what woke him up, but at some point he had become conscious of his surroundings. He raised his eyelids, gazing into the shadowy room.

Slowly but surely, the world came into sharp focus, the tiny sliver of light falling through the curtains lit the room in soft hues of pale blue and green. It was one of the more subtle things that came with being half ghost— even as a human, his eyes required virtually no light to see.

Sam was lying on her side and breathing quietly, the relative silence interrupted every few seconds by Tucker's periodic rasps. She had pulled the blankets down to her waist, where they draped off her slender form. Danny closed his eyes, but the familiar wooziness and lack of thought didn't come. He just wasn't sleepy anymore.

Danny heaved a sigh and propped himself up on his elbows, surveying the dim room. To his right, the skylight cast a square of cool light across the tatami mat. He looked up at the silhouetted metal frame and realized it was unlatched. Odd. Had he been the person he was over a year ago, this revelation probably would have creeped him out, but right now it merely inspired curiosity.

Danny pulled the covers over his head to repress the blaze of light as he transformed and turned intangible, letting the blankets fall through him. Soundlessly, he slipped up through the clear pane and into night air and light pollution.

Sitting at the edge of the roof was Atomu, staring out at the city's flicking radiance. Danny froze and slowly started to descend, praying he wouldn't notice.

"Hey, Danny."

"_Uugh._"

He stepped off the side of the dark window, glancing off across the half-lit circle of the roof as Atomu looked over his shoulder. "Does nothing escape you?" he muttered.

"Honestly, you're fine as long as you stay intangible. Sound doesn't bounce off you when you do that… it's odd that you can still speak and make contact with your own skin in that state, but so is how you can still see when invisible. I'm guessing they're both just a ghost things."

Danny scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "Uh… yeah."

Atomu expression softened, and he turned away. "I'm sorry… I talk too much. You've been itching to ask me questions all day, haven't you?"

Wow. Nothing really _did_ escape him. "That's a definite yes," Danny responded dryly.

Atomu slapped a hand on the space next to him on the edge of the roof. "Sit down. This is going to take a while."

Danny compliantly walked over, sitting down and letting his legs dangle over the fifty story drop. Over a year ago, this would have frightened him too, but it was amazing what the ability to fly did to the fear of heights.

Atomu was staring at some indefinite point on the horizon with a blank expression. "Danny, you know how I told you your paranoia was unnecessary? A few minutes ago, I realized I'm a hypocrite."

Danny wasn't sure how to respond to that.

"So ask me something."

"Oh." he said, "Uh… look, I suck at wording things. Just tell me…" he gesticulated wildly. "…Everything. Everything would be a nice place to start."

"That would be 1974."

"Oh. And?"

"In 1974 Toby was born to Dr. Tenma and Hoshie Tenma. Hoshie, the mother, died two years later due to heart troubles."

"Wait— Toby is Tenma's _kid?_ He—"

"I am _not_ finished," Atomu forcefully interjected, a note of pain rising into his voice.

Danny fell silent.

"Tenma was a very work-oriented man, and spent most of his days away at the Ministry. He barely paid any attention to Toby. However, at just the age of nine, Toby died in a car accident. It was instantaneous— a cervical fracture from whiplash. One of Tenma's colleagues was near the accident and immediately called Tenma upon recognizing the boy. Tenma was heart broken, and in a fit of madness he somehow managed to transport his son's body to the Ministry and transfer the majority of his memories into electronic data before complete brain death. The paramedics had to physically drag out Toby of his arms, in the end." Atomu hesitated, glancing at Danny's horrified expression before continuing.

"Tenma was Director, back in the day, so he basically had the entire Ministry under his thumb. He garnered a massive amount of funds, and using his genius for cybernetics and artificial neurology, he created the most advanced piece of technology ever created of that time."

"…ho …holy shit." Danny said, realization dawning.

Atomu smiled weakly. "I guess I don't have to tell you that robot was me. Granted, I looked a bit different back then— more like a robot. You could see my joint lines, and I didn't even have real hair, it was more like a couple of black spikes. The Ministry's upgraded me several times since then."

"You— have his memories? You have the memories of a _dead person?_" Danny practically yelled, still trying to grasp it.

"I'm not done yet."

"What the hell more is there to say!"

"Aren't you curious why Tenma isn't in good terms with the Ministry anymore?"

"Oh."

"Tenma was only happy with me for about a year. He soon became frustrated that I couldn't grow and mature like a human boy."

"That's kind of dickish," Danny commented, frowning. "Did he start ignoring you again?"

"He sold me to a robot fighting ring."

Danny paused. "_WHAT?_"

"You were following me, right? That huge robot who was in the downstairs workshop is Zog, one of the robots who fought in the ring. He got out 10 years back when the AI robot rights were passed, but I was freed when one of the human girls working at ring took pity on me and snuck me out. She couldn't stay with me, though, and I was left on my own. Still innocently hopeful, I returned to the Ministry in search of Tenma. I found him. He promptly dismantled me and burned down half the Ministry building."

Danny made a face. "He's not _sane._"

"—And he was promptly fired from his position as Director for mental instability. Ochanomizu took up the position of Director after him, and he found my deactivated body during the fire damage reconstruction. He repowered me at the first opportunity. But— when I woke up… I had no memories; Tenma had deleted them. I was restarting life. So Ochanomizu gave me a new name, after my atomic energy unit."

"Atomu." Danny said weakly.

"Yeah."

In the distance, a rocket shot up, exiting the troposphere in a crackling column of light. Danny watched it vanish from sight, nervously drumming his fingers on the ledge. Beside him, Atomu quietly stood up and walked off towards the skylight. Danny scrambled up, asking "So wait, what about Uran?"

Atomu turned. "Uran was made much later, by Ochanomizu. He was basically trying to create a robot at my level of mental intricacy. I ended up getting her as a Christmas present a while back."

Danny frowned. "A little sister as a Christmas present."

Atomu laughed. "She's not actually that bad— she's a whole lot more mature than she lets on."

They were wandering off to the side now, Atomu walking and Danny drifting along the glowing ring of the hallway's clear ceiling. Occasionally they passed one of the lit skylights that speckled the rim of the building.

"I was wondering… I'm not even sure if you know the answer, but… if you were designed after a nine-year-old kid, why did Tenma make you so freaking strong?"

"Ah. Obviously, he didn't want me dying again."

"Really? That's all?"

"I know, right? Kind of like squishing a bug with a military-grade laser cannon. Luckily I have a productive use for it nowadays."

"So…" Danny said, scratching his head, "You don't remember anything before you were reactivated, huh? Your time with Tenma or as Toby?"

"I do, actually. Tenma attempted to delete those memories, but he had made my brain with such human-like complexity that all it did was temporarily break the synaptic connections allowing me to consciously access them. The connections reformed after about a year."

Danny stared at him blankly.

"I had retrograde amnesia. I got better."

"You can get amnesia? Just how humanlike is your brain?"

"Very… I was the first with this type of brain, which can experience a full range of emotions and has thought processes similar to a human's. Of course, now the Ministry has caught up with Tenma and it's become very common and popular with the public, as humanlike robots are naturally easier to relate with. Though… there's still a load of political debate over how genuine those emotions are." Atomu got a solemn look across his face. "Danny? You phrased you last question like… 'My memories as Toby.'"

Atomu stopped walking, the glow of the corridor softly lighting his features from a low angle.

"I'm not Toby. I never was, and never will be. I have his memories, but they're not mine; they're his, and he died 22 years ago."

Danny felt the awkward silence crawl across his skin as he tried to come up with something to say.

"…Sorry."

"It's fine," he said, resuming his walk, "I just wanted to be clear."

"No! No, really!" Danny exclaimed, "What's happened to you is really horrible, and I should have never made you bring it up. It looked like it was really painful to say."

Atomu looked back at him. "You didn't make me."

"I'm still sorry," he said, defiantly crossing his arms.

Atomu stopped again, scrutinizing him. "You—" he paused, raising a hand as if to point something out. He then seemed to relax, his hand dropping to his side.

"Danny. You don't have to apologize for—"

"I don't care. It seems necessary."

A slow smile crept across his face, and he shook his head in amazement. "There are so few people like you. Fine. I accept your unnecessary apology."

A few yards in front of them, a skylight popped open and Sam stuck her head out. "What the blazes are you two doing up here?" she called.

Danny touched the ground and ran over, helping her up onto the roof. "How'd you reach the ceiling latch?" he asked, still gently clasping her hand.

"Oh, a chair. I woke up a few minutes ago and couldn't fall back asleep. I also noticed that I had been abandoned."

"What about Tuck?"

Sam rolled her eyes. "Tuck doesn't count, Danny. Besides, that delicate flower had long since moved to the couch."

"Really? He only lasted about five hours," Atomu commented.

Sam looked at the boy as if she hadn't realized he was there. "Oh, yeah, and think Ochanomizu and what's-his-face are still yammering away."

Atomu shrugged. "Higeoyaji will probably leave at some indecently early hour of the morning," he said, glancing between the two taller people with an odd sort of expression on his face. "I should probably go bother him to leave now, in fact. If he wants to go home and sleep before Tenma arrives, he doesn't have much of a timeframe left to do so." He walked past them to the skylight, calling "See you in the morning," before slipping through and courteously leaving it slightly ajar.

"Wow," Sam remarked, raising her eyebrows. "He's pretty observant, isn't he?"

"You have _no_ idea," Danny sighed.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15.

"What is this stuff?" Sam asked, plucking an icy silver crystal from the floor of the freezer.

It was next morning at about 9:00, and after coming out of the shower a few minutes ago Danny had realized that the ghost from yesterday was still a ghostsickle on the medical floor. Tucker, who had been lolling on the couch and refusing to do anything, immediately decided he needed a shower. Danny pressed that just because he had brought it up didn't mean he needed to come, but Atomu and Sam dragged him up the roof access stairs to get a Thermos from the Specter Speeder anyways. "If anything goes wrong, I want the person who froze it to be there," Atomu told him. Sam just told him he was being a weenie.

But what they had found was bizarre. Apparently, while they had gone, the ghost had contracted, pushing out a little forest of gray crystals. The spires stuck off it and out of the frosty shelf it sat on.

"Is this… normal?" Atomu asked, frowning as he fingered one of the spikes.

Sam laughed. "What, you think we stick ghosts in the fridge for the hell of it?"

Danny, who was standing off to the side and rubbing the goose bumps emerging on his arms, looked up. "Um… " he interjected, "Actually, my parents have. Several times." The cold was clinging uncomfortably to his damp hair, and his speech formed little whispers of fog in the parched, frozen air. Sam's breath was visible, too; but not Atomu's. Considering he had no body moisture and probably wasn't breathing in the first place, it wasn't much of a surprise.

"Your parents are loons," Sam said, tossing him the crystal she'd pulled off. Danny caught it, scowling at her. "But that's why we love them," she added.

He clutched the cold stone, turning it over in his hand. "Well, it's not normal, I can tell you that. In fact, we're lucky it didn't just shrug off the ice and leave— freezing only works long-term on weak little ghosts like this one."

"Is it dead?" Atomu asked, his scanner lights flickering as he continued to curiously examine it.

Sam watched him, eyebrow raised, while Danny firmly replied "It's a ghost. Ghosts don't die."

Atomu glanced back at him. "I thought you said ghosts _aren't_ dead people's souls."

"Yeah… I did. But ectoplasm is just weird that way, you could blast a ghost into millions of tiny pieces and it might still be 'alive' enough to pull itself back together."

"Hmm. It looks like the grey mineral was dissolved in it, but leeched out and crystallized while the ghost was frozen. And it also looks like it's monoelemental— that's certainly odd." He wandered over and took the crystal Danny was holding.

"Whatever it is, there was certainly a lot of it. So much for the almost pure ectoplasm theory," Sam said, uncapping the Thermos. Atomu watched in fascination as the ghost vanished into the small container with a whoosh and a metallic rattle.

"I was wondering how on earth you planned to fit it in there," he said as they left the walk-in freezer.

"Hah! You'd be surprised what you can cram in these things," Sam said, grinning and smacking the Thermos in her palm.

"Though it's by no means particularly _pleasant_ in one," Danny muttered, walking very close to Sam as they passed the bustling white halls.

Atomu stared. "Really?"

"Yeah, these things can fit a ghost the size of an average apartment condo. We can get ghost Danny in here no problem," Sam said, tapping the lid.

As she said it, another person in the hallway caught Atomu's attention. Unlike the rest, he wasn't wearing any medical garb and was conversing with a woman over a clipboard. Atomu called the man's name and he glanced up; blinking in surprise when he saw who it was. Quickly, he handed off the clipboard and loped over, calling "_Good morning, Atomu sir! What's the problem?_"

Uran had been force-feeding Danny basic grammar all morning, and he could actually make out most of the short conversation.

"_Could you take this to the sixteenth floor lab and check the chemical properties? Just whenever you have time, I know how busy the chemistry department is with electrical polymers these days._"

"Certainly. It's not an issue."

Atomu smiled. "_Thanks! Message my person when you figure it out, OK?_"

Then they parted ways.

"When is Tenma getting here?" Danny asked as they boarded the elevator.

"Any minute now. Ochanomizu should be freaking out right about now, and if Higeoyaji isn't here yet he's probably going to miss it."

They arrived at the top floor and walked out into the carpeted hallway. "Hey, Danny," Sam whispered, "Why exactly do they all hate Tenma so much? I mean you mentioned he was a jerk, but this is a bit overboard."

Danny blinked, squirming under her gaze. "Uh," he began.

"Tenma is a robot supremacist. A while back, before the AI rights act, he forcefully emancipated around 3,000 worker bots, and the collateral damage was massive. His jail sentence ended only about four years ago."

"Oh," Danny said, surprised. "I didn't know that."

"Emancipated? Like slaves?"

Atomu, who had been unlocking the door, turned to her with a solemn expression. "When the average robot is as intelligent and emotive as a human, you have to redefine what could be considered an 'object' or 'property.' And— changes like that— don't come easy. I've broken up as many riots as I've saved people's lives."

Danny could see the gears turning in Sam's head as she digested this information. Seeing how involved she was in human and animal rights, he expected her to start pelting him with questions, but she was oddly silent. Danny suspected she knew there was more to the story.

Atomu swung open the door and was greeted by a boisterous Higeoyaji. "_Good morning, good morning! I just got here, where were you three?_"

"_Medical floor. It's good to see you're chipper, despite getting about five or so hours of sleep last night._"

"_Oh, you know me, I can cram more rest in an hour than most people can in a night. As a private detective, sometimes it's necessary,_" he proclaimed proudly as they entered the living room, "_But! Sleep was not as important as what me and Ochanomizu discussed!_"

"_Of course not,_" Atomu replied.

"_We came up with many interesting theories, him and I._"

Danny and Sam sat down at the low table and Tucker scampered over to join them. Ochanomizu was leaning quietly by the window, a hand on his temple. He was Higeoyaji's polar opposite, with a face wrought with worry and exhaustion. Uran stood stiffly in the far corner, glaring lividly at anyone who moved. "What are they saying?" Sam whispered to Danny.

"_No, we didn't come up with theories, Shunsaku,_" Ochanomizu sighed, "_We came up with a couple of vague correlations between the attacks of dubious relevance._"

"_True, but 'theories' sounds so much more engaging, Ochanomizu. Have you no interest in the art of story telling?_" Higeoyaji complained.

"_Wording does not matter, so long as I am informed before ten,_" Atomu said. The mere mention of the time brought seriousness to the conversation.

"_I still can't believe you want to meet this Tenma guy,_" Higeoyaji grumbled.

"_Believe me, I'm looking forward to this about as much as you are._"

"_Fine, fine. Anyways, the first: all three robots were designed by head Ministry engineer Mokube Rokuro!_"

Atomu shrugged. "_Probably coincidence. He designs robots for most of the major production companies._"

"_Ah, but the second one is even more curious: All three attacks were located in virtually the same section of the city, and two in the residential area!_"

Atomu paused, drawing a hand to his chin. "_That's… right! And that makes me think… Hey, Danny!_" he called.

"What?"

"_You three came up with the theory that something bigger was controlling the other ghosts?_"

Higeoyaji grumbled about the conversation turning to English, so Ochanomizu walked over and started whispering the translation to him.

"Well, it was my sister's idea really. But why do you ask?"

"Why would it be sending ghosts over here in the first place? If they're concentrated in one area and all apparently attempts to cause havoc, it seems unlikely that there would be no motive."

Danny scratched his head. "Well, to be honest, most ghosts just crave power and control. To one that can possess robots, finding this dimension would be like tripping on a pot of gold."

"But—" Atomu murmured, staring into space, "Wouldn't it have sent more then? The attacks were all around the residential area… maybe it's after a person?"

"Maybe," Tucker retorted, "but at this point we really have _way_ too little information to make assumptions."

"I guess," Atomu sighed, "But we have to start somewhere, you know?"

Suddenly, beeping pierced the air and Ochanomizu jumped to attention, whipping up his watch arm and pressing the receive button. A small holographic image flicked to life above the screen, showing the face of a distressed looking security guard. "_Uh, Director sir,_" he said, glancing apprehensively to the right while he spoke, "_He's here. Tenma._"

"_Thank you. We'll be there momentarily,_" he affirmed before cutting contact and looking around the room. Atomu was standing tensely, Higeoyaji had a grimace that read "I want to punch something," Uran was radiating suppressed fury, and Ochanomizu somehow looked even more worried than before. "_Let's head out._"

They all got up and moved out the door. Danny wandered up next to Atomu, preparing to remark on the situation when Atomu stalled at the doorframe, looking back.

"_Uran, stay here._"

"_No,_" she replied. Danny blinked at the tone with which she said the word— she sounded less like an obstinate child and more like a young woman.

Atomu paused, his face turned in a way that Danny couldn't see his expression. "_Uran._" His tone was strangely calm.

"_Atomu, I'll be fine. I'm not the one to be concerned about right now, after all._"

"_Ok, ok. Step lively, everyone's waiting out in the hallway for us,_" Atomu said, taking her hand and pulling her out of the room. To Danny's surprise, he had a smile on his face.

"_Uran's coming?_" Ochanomizu asked, raising an eyebrow.

"_Of course I am,_" she retorted.

"_Whatever,_" he muttered, and they all boarded the elevator.

"Gee, it's kind of cramped in here!" Tucker complained, "We got what, seven people?" He was confronted by tense silence. "Uh…"

"Tucker?" Sam murmured, "Something tells me this is the wrong time to joke around."

"The prospect of meeting this guy is growing steadily less and less appealing," he said warily, the ding of the elevator doors joining him in the background.

In the lobby they were immediately greeted by a guard, one of many hanging uneasily around the left side of the room. He directed them towards the man they had come to meet, though it was rather unnecessary— Tenma's side of the room was completely deserted save for the peripheral security guards. Even the passing scientists and the handful of people who had come to the Ministry lobby that morning seemed to be cutting a wide path around the lone man. Tenma himself sat nonchalantly on his empty bench, watching them scurry past from under his dark red fedora in amusement. He wore a trim black suit and tie, and next to him on the cushioned bench was a slender briefcase.

Noticing the shifting gazes, he turned to eye them. Danny felt a chill go down his spine as their eyes briefly made contact. Did Tenma recognize him? He had been in ghost form the last time they'd met… surely he wouldn't be able to look and tell like Atomu, he wasn't a robot… not that he was particularly eager for Tenma to recognize him.

Tenma stood up to face the approaching group of unfriendly looking people. Everyone except Atomu seemed to grow more uncomfortable the closer they got to the man— Ochanomizu's jaw was tense, Uran was glaring again, Higeoyaji was growling and cracking his knuckles. Even Tucker and Sam, who knew relatively nothing about him, looked slightly worried by the tall lanky man with the goatee and the odd smile. Danny felt rather intimidated himself, after what Atomu had told him Tenma seemed less like an unreasonably feared man and more like an insane, unstable monster.

"_Tenma,_" Ochanomizu said, him and the rest stopping about four yards off.

Tenma reached up and adjusted his fedora as he replied "_Such an affectionate greeting, Ochanomizu. And I see you've brought the entire army out to meet me, Atomu. Do I really deserve such a fuss?_"

Atomu shrugged silently.

"_What sort of question is that, you filthy dog?_" Higeoyaji growled murderously behind him.

Tenma, seemingly not noticing the remark, turned to examine the three foreign teenagers. Danny glowered back belligerently as Tenma's gaze fell on him once again.

"_You must be Danny._"

_Huh, _he thought,_ Maybe everyone in my city _is_ just completely oblivious._

"_You've got a keen eye,_" Atomu commented.

"_Hardly. I just knew he was male, white, and a teenager._"

"_Cut to the chase, Tenma!_" Higeoyaji snarled, "_Cough up that name!_"

Tenma sighed. "_Well, you're all lucky, I managed to find the documents,_" he waved towards the briefcase, "_In fact, you might even know him. The fifth research scientist on the dimensional studies project… Makube Rokuro._"

There was a pause, and Tucker whispered "Hey, isn't that the same guy they mentioned back up at the—"

"_DR. MAKUBE!_" Ochanomizu shouted in disbelief, making the guards shuffle warily.

"_Really?_" Atomu asked.

"_He's the __head of engineering!__ I thought it would be some obscure, private tinkerer, not __Dr. freaking Makube!"_ Ochanomizu ranted, "_You could have told us that in a __phone call!"_

"_You seem to forget that I do not have any of the contact numbers for the Ministry or you, though I'm not sure why,_" he raised his eyebrows, "_Perhaps you fear I will call you at the early hours of the morning and make chicken noises? Because I stopped doing that at the age of twelve._"

Danny stifled a snort of laughter, and Sam elbowed him in the ribs. "Hey, literate man. What's going on?"

"_Besides, I also came here to give the papers, and please don't make me remind you that I also lack the number for your fax._"

Ochanomizu had turned slightly red by now. "_Well, just hand over the damned brief case and leave, then! All we have to do to find this man is get in the elevator!_"

"_Oh, so you plan to rob me of my briefcase now, too?_"

"_Actually,_" Atomu said forcefully, interrupting their little spat, "_Dr. Makube isn't here. He has Wednesdays off, so he's probably away from the Ministry right now._"

"_Then Tenma can leave immediately! We'll visit his house ourselves!_"

"_But we don't even know if he's home, Ochanomizu. Uran, could you go call his mobile at one of the holophone booths?_"

"_Right!_" she called, scampering off. There was a brief silence before Tenma spoke.

"_Atomu. Ochanomizu. I advise that you let me come along, in the interest of the success of this venture._"

"_What? Why? What are you planning!_" Ochanomizu yelled accusingly.

"_Nothing. It's merely a word of advice. But, back when we first proved the existence of other dimensions and we started to build a prototype dimensional portal, it ended up seeming rather impossible. Most of us quickly abandoned the project to pursue other research. All except Rokuro, who was fascinated by it. Several weeks later, I asked him how it was going, if he had made any progress. He responded with this strange dead look in his eyes— I've halted all research and development, he said. I pressed him, but he refused to say anymore,_" Tenma's voice was low, his eyes piercing. "_Something happened. That's all I know, because he never talked about it again. Now, I know how terrified you and every other human in this room is of my presence, but what I'm implying is that you may need that presence if you want to get any information at all."_

Uran ran back to the group, looking slightly dazed. "_He said he was home but very, very busy._"

"_Did you manage to inquire if he has time to see visitors?_" Atomu asked.

"_Yeah— he just said he wasn't going anywhere and then hung up. He sounded kind of cranky._"

"_Well then, let's head out and go bother him. Since there's so many of us, we should take one of the Ministry shuttle busses._"

Ochanomizu stalled, spluttering at Atomu's retreating back. "_You plan to take him as well!_"

"_Of course, you heard what he said. And if you don't hurry up, we're leaving you behind._"

_A shuttle ride with Tenma,_ Danny thought, _This is going to be interesting._


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16.

-Amity Park-

"Dad just called. He said he's making his way back."

"Did he find them?"

"No, he just doesn't want to stay too long out there."

Maddy sighed and gripped the steering wheel tighter. Outside, dark houses flashed past the RV.

"Well, this won't take long. When we get back I can take over for him…"

"NO. Mom, we're all exhausted, including you. We've been fighting ghosts for the past seven hours, and when we get back we are resting while we can. The Specter Detector can alert us if we need to jump to action."

Maddy bit her lip. "I just wish there was something we could _do. _They could be _dead_ right now, Jazz, and we haven't even found a trace of them. My _son_ could be de—" she choked on the last word.

"I know," Jazz murmured softly, "But being exhausted will get us nowhere."

"Yeah," Maddy croaked, blinking heavily and trying to focus back on steering.

Jazz glanced out the side window; a familiar sight was briefly lit by the stark flash of the headlights. "Isn't that the house that Mr. Burke was cornered against?"

Maddy sniffed and wiped her face. "Don't look at me, I'm just following the GPS to the point we locked down."

Jazz was unresponsive, staring intently out the dark windshield.

"It should be around here somewhere," Maddy commented.

"'Here' is nothing but houses. Does that mean it's in the residential section?"

"Apparently," Maddy muttered, pulling up at the curb. "The map shows us as being pretty much on top of it right now. Grab the Fenton Portal Disrupter, will you dear?"

Jazz reached over to the boom-box sized piece of equipment, hoisting it under her arm as she clambered out of the vehicle. Maddy left on the other side, and found Jazz standing stock-still, gaping at something across the street.

"What's wro—" Maddy cut off, seeing the discrepancy.

Every house in town currently had a ghost shield running, creating a faintly gleaming but strong barrier that clung to the outside walls. Except this one.

"You know," Jazz croaked, "The controls are on the inside to prevent ghosts from tampering with them. But that's kind of worthless if the ghosts were _inside to begin with._"

"Well, at least we know where to start searching." Maddy said with grim resolution.

-Metro City-

English in italics, Japanese un-italicised.

"Are those police cars?"

It had been a very tense ride, with Tenma sitting on one side of the shuttle bus and everyone else on the other. Even the driver seemed to be crouching slightly away from him. Things weren't looking much better now that they had arrived, either, what with the five police cars parked in every available space around the large two-story house. From the shade of the porch, a handful of policemen warily observed them pull up at the opposite curb.

"Dear god, he goes and gets himself arrested before we can even talk to him?" Ochanomizu squawked.

"They wouldn't bring this many cars to just a simple arrest," Atomu commented, getting up with a slightly worried expression.

"_Hey,_" Sam whispered, "_Am I tripping, or do those cars look like dog heads?_" Danny shrugged.

"_This is one weird city,_" Tucker murmured, shuffling to his feet with the rest of them.

Tenma followed last, dropping his chin and pulling his hat down low over his eyes. The shuttle driver flinched as he went past. Outside the air was already hot and sticky; waves of heat simmering off the black asphalt road as they crossed it. The policemen, who had been watching, blinked in surprise upon recognizing Atomu and immediately snapped to attention with a salute. Atomu smiled, returning the gesture as he stepped up on the porch.

"Good morning, officers. I'm sorry to be intruding like this, but can you tell me what's going on?"

"Sir! Mr. Makube is currently under the protection and jurisdiction of the City Police Department, sir!"

Atomu paused, his eyes narrowing imperceptibly. "Is Officer Tawashi around here somewhere?"

"Yes, sir! He's inside the house, questioning Mr. Makube."

"Do we have permission to enter?"

"Certainly, sir!"

"Thank you," Atomu responded gratefully, "Though you needn't call me sir so many times."

"Yes si—! I mean—" he stuttered.

Atomu laughed. "It's fine, don't worry."

Upon entering, they were instantly hit by a wave of cool, dehumidified air. From their surroundings it was fairly easy for Danny to tell that Mr. Makube was a man of copious wealth and no immediate family. They were inside a spacious living room adorned by Western style décor, delicate art pieces, and upholstered furniture that any child would have ruined in a heartbeat. On the far wall was a Plasma TV screen the size of a small billboard. It had an open pair of doors to what looked like a large dining room to its left, and a thick spiral staircase leading to the second floor on its right.

Of course, the effect was kind of ruined by the dozen or so uniformed officers chatting anxiously in the center of the room. Off to the side, an irritated looking Tawashi argued with an even more irritated looking man that Danny immediately assumed to be Dr. Makube. He was younger than Danny had expected, perhaps in his late thirties, with a slim athletic build and glossy black hair. His bangs and short sideburns had a distinctive curl to them, and he wore a white polo shirt with his black slacks.

Currently, he was yelling. "Why the hell should I know? I wasn't doing anything to provoke anyone or anything!"

"But twice in the same day! Attacks like these don't just _happen,_ Makube!"

"Attacks?" Atomu asked, and the room fell silent. In a move Danny was getting used to, all the policemen snapped up solutes.

Tawashi didn't seem to care for such formalities, though. "YOU! You and your scientist friend are going to tell me what _exactly_ has been going on with these random robot attacks! There's been _five_ now!"

"_Five?_" Danny muttered, prompting Sam and Tucker to once again demand translations.

"What makes you think they're connected?" Atomu said smoothly.

"Of course they're connected! They've all happened in the same area, around this man's house— and the last two tried to _kill_ him! I'm not an idiot, Atomu!"

"Two more?" Ochanomizu asked, shocked, "We only heard of three!"

Atomu shushed him, but Tawashi had already pounced on the comment. "That's because we could handle the last on our own, thank you very much. The two robots were much less powerful, probably because they were _stealth attacks,"_ he spat, "Also, I called the Ministry earlier, asking for the results of the CPU examination of the construction robot! They said there were no programming faults whatsoever, so they searched for a disrupter bug— but in the end they couldn't find any physical evidence one had been there, much less an actual bug. _And you are going to tell me why."_

"Well," Atomu calmly looked over his shoulder, "It looks like we're going to be doing all sorts of explaining today. Danny?"

"_Go ahead,_" he moaned, "_If it gets him to stop shouting at us, then I don't mind._"

Tawashi glanced at the rest of the group as if he only just realized they were there, his eyes locking on Danny's. "Hey! You're that American kid from the first attack! Atomu, he has absolutely no business being here. Much less with his two friends tagging along! And was it necessary to bring your sister?"

Uran started to say something insulting about his nose, but Atomu cut her off. Let's continue this in the dining room, shall we? Makube, you're coming as well.

They moved from carpeting to hard wood flooring. The dining room was sort of a long rectangle, with a huge polished oak slab table in the center. Danny noticed that although there were many chairs, most of them were stacked in the corner, forgotten. Only about three were actually at the table, making it an oddly lonely scene. _Why does one person need a room this big anyways?_ he thought.

"So, what does the Ministry want from me today?" Makube asked reproachfully.

Atomu carefully shut the doors behind them. "Dimensional travel."

Makube seemed to freeze, eyes slowly widening. Out of the corner of his vision, Danny saw Tenma smirk perceptively. He had clearly been expecting this.

"…What…? I— but— I stopped research on that ages ago!" Makube's voice was shaking slightly as he said it.

"And what the bloody, blazing hell does dimensional travel have to do with any of this?" Tawashi shouted.

"Will you be _quiet_ for a second?" Atomu yelled.

Tawashi folded his arms and glared at him. "I'm quiet," he said.

"The reason I'm asking about such an odd topic, Makube, is because these three teenagers need to get _back home_. As Tawashi so aptly put it, they have '_no business being here._'"

"_They're all looking at us,_" Sam muttered cautiously into the silence. "_Yeah, get used to it,_" Danny sighed.

"Are you sure they're not just foreigners?" Makube asked weakly.

"The word 'foreigners' would technically be correct, but a truly massive understatement," a deep voice said. All eyes turned to Tenma. "They are not only from a different country, Makube, but a different country in another world."

"WHAT IS HE DOING HERE, ATOMU?" Tawashi bellowed, swiftly reaching for his gun holster.

"It's a pleasure to meet you as well, Tawashi," Tenma said, sweeping his hat to his chest and bowing slightly, "I haven't seen you in a while, I believe."

"Tawashi, please calm down," Atomu sighed. Tawashi did not seem to have ever been calm in his entire life, but his rage subsided an infinitesimal amount.

"But—" Makube started, staring warily at Tenma, "How? How did they get here?"

"Dimensional tears have been appearing all over this city for the past few days now. They were pulled to this dimension through them."

"But… That shouldn't be—" Makube shook his head as if to clear a thought.

"What's wrong?" Atomu asked.

"Nothing."

"I _still_ don't see how any of this is related to the attacks," Tawashi said furiously.

"It's complicated," Atomu explained, "The tears aren't actually connected to their home universe, but a dimension very close to theirs; close enough for natural passageways to open between them with regularity. They are frequently plagued by beings from the other dimension they call—" he said the English word, then searched for an appropriate translation, "Or ghosts. Named so for their similar abilities, like intangibility, invisibility, and possession. Due to the tears, ghosts are now coming into our world and possessing robots, creating the mess we're currently in. I haven't a clue why they're trying to specifically kill you, though," he said, giving Makube an apologetic look. The man had slouched against the wall, staring at Atomu in open-mouthed disbelief.

"So," Tawashi growled, "Let me get this straight: evil ghosts from another world are possessing robots in an attempt to kill the Ministry of Science's head engineer."

"Pretty much, yeah."

"Do you take me for an idiot? I'm not going to believe something so ridiculous for what could easily be attributed to a high tech assassination attempt! I'd tell you to go write a novel, but nobody in their right mind would bother to type that up." He jerked his head in Tenma's direction. "He's a technological genius. Maybe he's behind it."

"Hmm, he's got a point there," Tenma said thoughtfully, "I certainly do have the skill, though I don't really seem to have any motives— perhaps I harbor a secret grudge?"

Atomu rolled his eyes. "Look, I won't deny it sounds ridiculous, but…"

"Well…" Makube murmured slowly, "It is another dimension, it's not too terribly implausible…"

"It doesn't matter if it's _true,"_ Tawashi said, "I'm not going to just accept something that ludicrous without proof."

"_Danny. Danny! What are they saying?_" Tucker hissed. Danny was biting his lip, carefully forming a sentence in his head as the argument went back and forth in the background. Makube had regained his irritated expression, and was starting to join in when Danny finally stepped forward, drawing their attention. He avoided their stares, growing slightly hot under the limelight he had attracted.

"Uh… I can show," he said quietly.

And with a flick he disappeared.

Tawashi's eyes went as wide as saucers as he frantically glanced around, searching for a person he couldn't see. Makube just gaped at the spot Danny had vanished from. A light thump came from the edge of the table and they quickly jerked their heads over, but it had already fallen silent again.

"Where is he?" Tawashi whispered, his throat slightly dry.

"Here," a bodiless voice said. A white flash glanced off the walls as Danny appeared, sitting cross-legged three feet above the table and brushing long white bangs out of his face.

"Is he— a ghost?" Makube said, breaking the silence.

Danny shook his head. "I'm… half."

"How?" he asked, flabbergasted.

Danny was spoken for by Atomu. "From what I heard, it was a lab accident with an artificial portal."

Makube snapped his attention to Atomu. "They've made a portal?" he asked suspiciously.

"No!" Danny said, making him jump, "No to here." He shook his head. "_Ugh… I mean_ '_NOT_ to here.'"

"It was between their dimension and the ghost dimension, a much easier project than what you were attempting to build," Atomu added.

The police officer folded his arms. "I thought you said he couldn't speak Japanese."

"He's a fast learner," Tenma replied, sauntering over to Atomu and Makube. Tawashi whipped a hand over to his gun holster, and Atomu sent him a warning glance. Danny took the opportunity to zip back across the room to his friends.

"Of course, we're not here to just explain things to you," Tenma said, now close enough to make Makube visibly uncomfortable, "Now are we?"

Makube made a little hiss of a sigh. "You want me to build a dimensional portal. What, do you think I can remember the design off the top of my head?"

"But surely you recorded it somewhere. Research papers, maybe even prototypes. If you have a finished product, that's even better."

"We didn't make a finished product," he muttered.

"And? What do you have? Considering you were nearly killed twice today, you ought to be putting a little more heart into this."

He gave a short, humorless laugh; like a dog's bark. "I suppose I should." He silently hung his head, as if to examine the ground.

"So? Start supposing."

There was no reply, and Tenma leaned closer, narrowing his eyes.

In a low, almost mocking voice he said, "Or would you rather tell us _why_ you hesitate to speak, Rokuro?" He used the engineer's first name, as though speaking to a child. "After all, I'm still _ever_ so curious as to why you quit your research in the first place_._"

Makube's shoulders started to shake slightly, as if he had begun to have a small panic attack.

"No? Nothing to say? I can just speculate, then." Tenma leaned back casually, lifting a hand to stroke his goatee, "My, my. I wonder if has _anything_ to do with a certain young l—"

"NO!" Makube blurted, jerking his head up and aggressively stepping forward. His voice was a hoarse and furious shout. Atomu stepped forward, tensing in preparation to stop a fight. "Shut up! Sh— that has nothing to do with this! His fists were clenched, but his resolve seemed to be waning to helplessness with each word."

Tenma raised an eyebrow.

Makube ground his teeth and finally spat "There's a prototype and blueprints for a working version in storage at the Ministry. I could construct it from the prototype in— less than a day."

"How do we know it will work?" Atomu asked.

"It's been tested."

"I thought you said you had no final products," Tenma commented.

Makube glared at him. After a bit he said "It was destroyed."

Tenma smirked. "How?"

Makube swung at him, but Atomu snatched his arm with blindingly fast precision. "No fighting, he told them firmly, slowly letting his arm down and sending Tenma a glance that read "you better tell me what this is about."

"So… you'll come with us?" Ochanomizu asked tentatively, taking a step forward, "I mean, the sooner we sort this out the better."

"Now wait a minute!" Tawashi snapped, "This man was nearly killed twice today! He isn't going anywhere without police protection!"

"Well, the solution to that is quite simple," Atomu replied.

There was a pause.

"_Oh god,_" Danny said, "_The shuttle's going to be PACKED._"


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17.

"This would be so much easier if we had the Fenton Portal Locater with us. Where is that thing, anyways?" Maddie whispered.

"On the Specter Speeder."

"Oh."

The light switch had failed to work. It was probably just do to wires downed by a stray ectoray shot in the heat of a ghost fight, but it meant they had to go back to get flashlights from the RV. Maddie's GPS wasn't good enough to work in the large two-story house, so their search consisted mainly of looking into random dark rooms.

"Why does a guy need a house this big, anyways?" Jazz hissed, the stark flashlight cutting a shaft through the shadows.

"I think he had a spouse when he first moved here…" Maddie said distractedly, carefully shining her flashlight down a side hallway before stepping into it. "Oh, Jazz, look," Maddie pointed at the mutilated control box for the ghost shield, and Jazz loped over to examine it, setting down the heavy Portal Disrupter.

It had a gaping hole torn deep into the surface, bits of twisted and torn metal visible as she shone her light into it. She fingered a bit of what was left of its number pad, frowning to herself. It had an oddly matte look, like etched glass, and the missing edges were too smooth to have torn by brute force.

"This looks like it's been eroded…" Jazz muttered, just as a spark jumped within the machine and she jerked her hand back.

"Careful with that, dear. Some of those wires are probably live," Maddie warned, walking past her, peering in doors and flickering her flashlight across the walls.

"You could have told me that beforehand," Jazz sighed.

"What on earth is that?" Maddie murmured. Jazz looked up, seeing the beam from her mother's flashlight glancing off something metallic at the end of the hall. She quickly hoisted the Disrupter and followed Maddie as she went to investigate.

Jutting in from the left was a huge curved metal plate. It blocked off the entire hall— only a small portion of hall on the opposite side was uncovered. The wall had had been apparently hacksawed through to make room for the giant metal cylinder.

Maddie peered down the inch wide crack. "It looks about 7 feet in diameter," she rapped the side, "sounds hollow."

"These pieces of metal look salvaged," Jazz commented.

"He probably made it himself."

"Probably sawed this hole himself, too. It's an all around unprofessional job," she paused, examining it. "Though— that must mean there's more of it in another room, let's go around and see if we can find it."

They wound their way back around to the front room, their footsteps soft taps on the hardwood floor. "It's probably down this way," Jazz said in a low voice as she cautiously entering the next parallel hall, holding the flashlight in front of her like a weapon. She started trying doors on the right while Maddie took the left, and for a while the silence was filled by the continuous creaking of hinges. Then suddenly, a rattle came from Jazz's side.

"Hey, I can't open this one— it's locked," she complained.

"That's extremely suspicious. Move over, dear," Maddie had walked up behind her, a Fenton Pistol already having manifested itself in her hand. Jazz stepped to the side and flinched as Maddie shot out the lock with a piercing blast. What had been holding it in place now a smoking hole, the door swung lazily inward.

Blazing in the direct center of the room was a truly massive portal. It emitted a deep, almost inaudible rumble, the vortex of haze within it turning with the languid speed of a thunder cloud.

"Oh my god," Jazz whispered hoarsely, blinking against the harsh, unnaturally colored light, "It's huge! You can't even see the other side of the room!"

"Jazz honey," Maddie said lowly, "You still got that Portal Disrupter?"

"Yeah."

"Good. Now go over, turn it on, and run back to me. I'll hold your back with the Fenton Pistol. Now go!"

Jazz dashed over to the base of the portal, quickly slamming down the Disrupter and smacking the on switch. Immediately the sides began to fold out, locking it down as its systems hummed to life. Jazz shot up quickly, but suddenly froze. She turned to look back into the glowing whirlpool, her expression of surprise slowly melting into astonishment.

"Jazz! Get back over here!" Maddie hissed, her voice rapidly being drowned out by the Disrupter's growing drone.

Jazz stayed a step away, staring into the wall of swirling green and purple clouds, the gentle current rippling gently through her long hair. As the machine was reaching a deafening crescendo, Maddie finally sprinted for forward and wrenched her away.

As she did, lightning-like strands shot from the edges of the portal and it imploded in on itself with a colossal flash of energy. Their ears rang in the sudden silence.

"What were you THINKING!" Maddie yelled. "Being that near to the closing portal could KILL you!"

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," Jazz cried, "I was just surprised because I heard something, it soun—"

"THAT MEANS YOU RUN FASTER! We can't take any chances here, Jazz! I can't lose you!"

"I know, I'm sorry, it was just that it…" she glanced to the side and did a double take. Maddie looked up as well.

"Well. Look what was behind it," she said slowly.

"That's definitely what we came looking for." On the far wall was a thick, circular steel rim, with eight massive offshoots clamped to the wall. The inside extended far beyond the wall, making a giant hollow cylinder. The silence was ended by the click of the Disrupter as it finished folding itself back up.

"That looks like an… artificial portal. Like what we have," Jazz said.

"It's definitely not turned on, though. I don't think it was making the portal we just saw." Maddie walked over, grabbing the now depowered Disrupter as she did. "But would you look at the size of it! This design is complete overkill for a simple little ghost portal!" She knocked the side of one of the offshoots, the front of which was an open mess of wires and tubes. "I don't recognize the design… maybe this part's an amplifier? As if this thing needs it."

"Mom?"

"Hm?"

"We're in a workshop."

Maddie glanced around, her face slightly blank with realization. "Oh! I didn't even notice!" She quickly went to go examine one of the several messy work tables while Jazz quietly made her way to one of the inactive portal. "Look at the piles of scraps he's collected— my god, he's as bad as your father," she turned to Jazz, picking up a jeweler's hex wrench gesturing with it as she spoke, "But that only serves to make things stranger— why on earth would he build his own portal? I mean, there's only so much that you can attribute to boredom, and it make how he was being chased by ghosts earlier even more suspic—"

"I think he only built part of it."

"What do mean?"

"Come here," Jazz said, beckoning for Maddie to stand next to her. "See that half? It's newer looking, more compressed and streamlined. It has most of its outside plating, too. This half on the left looks totally cobbled together."

Maddie put a hand to her chin. "I see what you're talking about… but what does that mean? He couldn't have gotten it from us, it's not one our designs, and we've never made more than one anyways."

Jazz didn't answer, but stared intently at the portal. "The Guys in White… no, they wouldn't have, they want to keep ghosts out of this world…" she chewed her lip in thought, and Maddie glanced around the room awkwardly.

Suddenly she froze, facing the door.

"Jazz. Do you hear that?"

Her concentration broken, Jazz turned to listen too. "Is that a car alarm?" she whispered.

Maddy paused, then her eyes slowly began to widen. "No," she said, voice rising in horror, "That's the Ghost Detector in the RV."

"Crap!" Jazz yelped, her no-swears rule slipping for the situation as they bolted for the door. The radio was starting off in her pocket as well, so still sprinting, she yanked it out and pressed receive.

"Hey, Jazz darling," Jack's voice said, "Just got home, found the mayor in our livingroom."

"Yes dad," she gritted through clenched teeth, trying to navigate the dark house and hold the radio still at the same time, "We brought him there."

"I know that he told me. I'm calling because every ghost alarm in the house has gone off. What's going on?"


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18.

The shuttle was packed. About twelve policemen were crammed in the back eight rows of the small ten rowed bus, chatting aimlessly and watching the entourage of nine at the front as they went down the elevated highway. Atomu and Tenma were sitting in the row behind the very unhappy looking driver, Atomu urgently whispering to Tenma while attempting to ignore how Ochanomizo and Uran's accusing glares were boring into his back. At the same time, Tawashi was sitting next to Ochanomizu and attempting to hold a conversation with him, growing increasingly frustrated as the man continued to ignore him in favor of silently glaring at Tenma. Danny, Tucker and Sam had all squished themselves into one two-seater behind Tenma and Atomu, as none of them were too keen on sitting next to Makube, who was across from them in the same aisle. The situation was rather awkward and tense, and how he had been staring at them in fascination since when they'd gotten on was definitely not helping.

"So you and your friends speak mainly English, yes?" he said with a surprisingly smooth accent, "Are you from the USA or the Australia or the UK? Do those countries exist where you are from?" Sam and Tucker peered over, shocked that he had said something they could recognize.

"We're from America," Sam replied warily.

Danny frowned crankily. "Hey, you can speak English? And I was struggling to talk to you in Japanese!"

Makube looked slightly taken back by the harsh response, like a swimmer that had dipped a toe in the water and gotten scalded. "Ah— the— the scientists at the Ministry work internationally. Many of us speak many languages."

"So I've heard," Danny muttered.

"Huh," Tucker whispered to the group, "He pronounces words better than Ochanomizu."

"Yeah, but listen to the way he phrases things," Sam murmured back, then stretched out to say "Sorry Danny is so snappy, mister Makube. We're teenagers; it's a natural reaction to being spoken to."

Makube gave a short and uncomfortable laugh.

"You sound like Jazz," Danny said, eyeing Sam strangely.

"Who is Jazz?" Makube asked curiously.

Danny slowly turned to look at him, brow furrowing as he did. "My sister."

"Oh. I have no sisters or brothers. Is she here too? In this city?"

Danny abruptly switched topics. "What was Tenma getting you all worked up over?"

Makube blinked, stuttering a bit before firmly answering "It is nothing important."

"Sure, whatever. Everyone around here seems to have something to hide."

"Says the person who hid the fact he was a half ghost from his parents for over two years!" Sam laughed.

Danny scowled at her. "Sam, gimme a break. They _distinctly_ stated they wanted to tear apart "the ghost kid" _molecule by molecule_. And even after they learned that it was me, they wouldn't look at me straight for weeks; they only stopped after the media lay off bothering us enough for me to finally get a chance to talk to them! I mean geeze, it wasn't like I was betraying their trust or something!"

Makube, seemly uncomfortable with the way the conversation was headed, busied himself watching the very interesting freeway.

"Cool down, man," Tucker said, "What's your problem, anyways?"

Danny gave an irritated sigh. "I don't know… it just seems like at this rate, we're never going to get back."

"What are you talking about?" Sam said scornfully, "We're sitting right across from the guy who can build dimensional portals!"

"Yeah, he said he could us back in less than a day!" Tucker added.

Danny paused, staring at them contemptuously, then glanced around shuttle. He quickly ducked his head down and began to speak in a low voice. "Sam. Tucker. Have you noticed the, uh, 'group dynamics?' Nobody here trusts each other. Everyone's harboring some sort of terrible dark secret they don't want to share. And our three scientists? Ochanomizu hates Tenma, Makube nearly _punched_ Tenma, and Tenma seems to find the situation more amusing than anything else. Plus, now we've got the police and that hot-headed nutcase Tawashi tagging along. Face it; we're about as functional as a one-wheeled Pinto sinking in tar."

The two exchanged a glance. "Danny, it's not _that_ bad," Tucker protested.

"The realist in me would like to say otherwise."

Sam shrugged. "Since when have our lives ever been realistic?"

Makube then cleared his throat and said "The road is very empty today, yes? There is only a city bus behind our bus."

Tucker glanced out the window. "Well, we _are _on a one way road during the lull after everyone's gone to work, so it's no surprise." He responded causally.

Sam and Danny looked at him funny.

"What?" he protested, "It's called being 'polite,' and 'conversational.'"

Makube was apparently not inclined to reply, because he continued to stare out the bus window. Eventually, he turned asked no one in particular, "_Isn't it impossible for city buses to speed?_"

Atomu looked around the back of his shuttle seat in confusion. "_Of course._"

Makube bit his lip. "_Well_…"

"_Let me see._" Atomu got up and briskly walked over, leaning with a hand on the edge of the seat to get a view out the windowpane. The mention of speeding had grabbed Tawashi's attention as well, and he craned his neck in an attempt to see over the back of his row.

"What's the commotion?" Sam murmured.

"I'm not sure myself— it's just a bus going above the speed limit," Danny replied.

Atomu locked eyes on the fast approaching vehicle, doing a quick calculation. "_It definitely is_—" he muttered, "_Wait, now it's stopped._" The bus was now matching their speed, driving parallel to them about two lanes off.

"_I didn't know this was a bus route,_" Tawashi remarked.

All of a sudden, Atomu's eye's widened. "_BRACE YOURSELVES!_"

Sam frowned. "What—" Outside the bus swerved, and Danny yanked them down just as they collided with a bone jarring slam. Swiftly it pulled away, anti-grav motors whining under the stress of the high speed turn.

"_OH MY GOD, WHAT WAS THAT?_" the bus driver screamed over the screech of metal against guardrail, frantically twisting the steering wheel to pull them back on track.

"_I NEED EVERYONE TO STAY CALM!_" Atomu shouted, "_WE WERE JUST RAMMED BY A CITY BUS, AND IT WILL LIKELY DO IT AGAIN!_"

"_What am I supposed to do!_" The bus driver yelled hysterically.

"_Drive straight at 150 kph, and watch the road!_" he barked, then quickly twisting to his sister, "_Uran! Message the traffic bots and tell them to block off this road, and get any other vehicles off as soon as possible!_" Uran nodded furiously. "_Officers in the back! DO NOT SHOOT! There are most likely people still in it!_"

"_Goddammit, it's only been twenty minutes since the last one… it looks like it's trying to kill us by driving us over the edge_…" Tawashi growled, reluctantly holstering his gun.

"Atomu!" Danny yelled, "What the hell is going on?"

Atomu turned and looked at him intensely. "Danny, city buses are autonomous. They're _robots_."

"Ohh," Danny murmured, eyebrows shooting up in realization. He promptly turned to Sam. "I need the Thermos!"

"I don't _have _the Thermos!" she snarled.

"What? You should bring that thing _everywhere!_"

"Another ghost attack? Already?" Tucker said in disbelief.

"_IT'S COMING AGAIN!_" Makube shouted.

Atomu absent-mindedly held a rail as the shuttle was hit by another bone jarring blow. "Can't you freeze it?" he asked.

"You expect me to hold onto that thing and find it? Danny said, Look at it! It's _shaped _like the front end a _bullet train_!"

"_Uh, brother?_" Uran said pointedly, "_I got the message through, everything's good. But— I think the driver is having a heart attack or something._"

Atomu looked up, giving an inward sigh before walking over to the strained looking man. "Are you feeling well?" he asked empathetically, leaning over the back of the seat.

"_Not really,_" the driver said, his voice unsteady. He was gripping the wheel so hard his knuckles had blanched white.

"_It'll be ok, just hold on a few more seconds,_" Atomu reassured him, then turned over his shoulder and shouted "_Anyone here know how to drive a bus?_"

All nineteen people stared blankly at him. Slowly, Tenma rose his hand.

"_You're up,_" Atomu said with an unceremonious wave.

"_WHAT?_" Ochanomizu squawked, leaping to his feet.

"_Since when!_" Tawashi roared.

"_My family wasn't that affluent,_" Tenma explained, calmly walking to the front, "_In my youth I drove a tourist shuttle during the summers to earn myself spending money._"

"_Does it __matter? __We have more pressing things to take care of!_" Atomu insisted, just as another ram nearly knocked them over and made the bus driver emit a dying wail.

Tenma regained his balance with a scowl, grabbing the wheel and shoving the other man aside. "_Out of the seat, crybaby,_" he growled, swiftly moving into the empty chair and flooring the accelerator. The engines roared, and the bus's fourth attempt to hit them only clipped the rear of the shuttle. This time Danny could hear faint screaming from the other vehicle.

"_We need to get those people off._" Atomu said.

"I can do that!" Danny interjected, "If they all hold hands, I can turn them intangible."

"You'll definitely need someone fluent for that."

"I'll come!" Uran shouted, eagerly raising her hand.

"I'll go back to the Ministry and get the Thermos, then. _Everyone just sit tight, I'll be back in a minute!_"he yelled, crouching. With an eye searing rip of wind and smoke, he was gone out the now demolished back window. Danny took the queue to jump out of his seat and transform, the police officers blinking in shock as the light cleared. "Hold on!" he shouted to Uran, thrusting out a hand. She clasped it and they turned intangible.

Now weightless, the shuttle shot forward without them, leaving them half drifting, half falling four feet above the freeway with the wind whipping around their bodies. Uran shrieked, and Danny pulled up just in time to land inside the city bus, hitting the back wall with a painful smack.

"That was terrifying!" she gasped. She then blinked as she noticed the seven or so people staring at them in shock. Danny hurriedly pulled her to her feet, whispering "Remember what we're here for" out of the corner of his mouth.

"Right," she nodded, "_Excuse us, your attention for a second! If you cooperate, we can get you out of here_!" The commuters' eyes flickered from the strange, faintly glowing person to Uran. A few seemed to recognize her, and began to whisper. "_We're going to need everyone to get in the center of the vehicle and hold hands!_"

Understandably, they looked at her like she was insane.

"_I don't care if you don't know each other! Do it!_"

Warily they got up, the only one not muttering an objection a young woman consoling her sobbing three-year-old daughter. They all eventually wound up in a loose ring the middle, all looking extremely uncomfortable with the situation.

"_I— I can't get her to let go of my jacket,_" the woman said in embarrassment. Uran glanced at Danny.

"_Uh… It— fine. As long as she hold you._"

Uran rolled her eyes at his terrible Japanese, then asked "_Are we all ready? She got some mumbled agreement. Then brace yourselves!_"

Danny inhaled and shut his eyes. In a flash, the bus ripped off into the distance, inciting screams from the passengers. For a spilt second they all drifted in midair, then Danny gave a hiss of pain and they all landed smack on the cement.

"Are you OK?" Uran asked, ignoring the other people's stunned silence.

"That— took more out of me than I thought it would," he said weakly, slowly sitting up. "I'm used to turning lots of stuff intangible, but keeping it floating with me is—" He was interrupted by a horrified scream. The woman had scrambled to feet, and was frantically looking around.

"_Haruhi! Where is Haruhi!_"

"Oh crap," Danny whispered, "She must have let go just before—"

Uran gasped. "You mean she's still on the bus!"


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19.

Danny, oblivious to his fatigue, pulled himself to his feet and was off like a shot. _I may not be as fast as Atomu, but I'm still way faster than a bus,_ he thought, _What's taking him so long, anyways?_

He was distracted from his train of thought by Uran appearing next to him. She had hiked up her skirts above the solid blur of her legs, which were making a sound that could only be described as a killer egg-beater.

"Good god, how fast can you run?" he shouted over the wind.

"If you're so tired, you shouldn't be doing this!" she yelled in reply.

"What, and leave the kid in there!"

"Just let me do it!"

"No! This is my own screw up!"

Uran screamed in frustration. "AAUUGH! At least let me _help_ you!"

"I think it's gaining on us," Tucker said warily.

"I think the more pressing issue is that we are running out of road," Ochanomizu replied sarcastically, pointing out the fast approaching intersection with a busy road. It appeared Uran's message really had gotten through, as it was blocked off by a solid metal wall painted with police department symbol. A row of red LEDs blinked ominously across the top. "_Tenma, please tell me that you're not going to run us into the blockade._"

Tenma, whose smirk had been growing for each minute behind the wheel, outright grinned at that comment. "Oh, of course not!" he said, his tone failing to replicate innocence.

"_Then what the hell do you plan to do? Let it rear-end us?_"

"_No. That would be idiotic. I'm going to turn around._"

Ochanomizu was speechless for a second. "_What? This is a THREE. LANE. ROAD. 30 STORIES IN THE AIR. WITH A VEHICLE BEHIND US INTENT ON OUR DEATHS. DRIVING AT OVER 180 KILOMETERS PER HOUR. And you plan… to do a U-turn._"

No one responded to this.

"_Idiotic. __Idiotic!__ We might as well drive over the edge and get it over with!_"

"_Watch me,_" Tenma purred.

Ochanomizu threw up his hands in defeat. "_We're going to die. Why not._"

"What's going on?" Sam asked tentatively.

"He's going to turn around," Makube answered.

Tucker's jaw dropped, and he said something that made Makube wince. Sam assumed near identical expression and said "I gotta agree with you there, Tuck."

Danny and Uran were swiftly approaching the bus, still arguing about what exactly they were going to do when they got there.

"Go in there, and then hand the kid off to me, Ok?"

"You realize that's going to be _extremely_ difficult, right? I mean, are you even as big as her?"

Uran glared. "My brother can carry ocean liners, and you think I can't even pick up a toddler?"

"Atomu's done _WHAT!_"

"Besides, once you're in there you can easily search for the ghost!"

"Ok, Ok, fine!"

With a final lunge of speed, he turned intangible and tumbled onto the bus, rolling out of the fall and getting gradually to his feet to look around. The sudden plunge brought the deafening absence of freeway noise. A little cry of terror came from his left, breaking the silence. He found himself looking at the stunned face of a small girl, her dark hair pulled back into 3 little ponytails. She was clinging to an arm rest with a vice-like grip, her red face wet with tears and snot. His entrance had obviously terrified her, something Danny was unfortunately used to— young children were sometimes around during ghost attacks, and they reacted to him just like any other ghost.

He slowly knelt down to her height, slowly and carefully saying "_I want to bring you to you mother._" He cursed himself for resisting Uran's attempts to teach him how to speak properly.

"_Go 'way,_" the girl cried, stepping back fearfully and attempting to hide behind a chair.

"_Please, you get hurt if stay here._"

The little girl peered out sullenly when the bus swerved, hitting the tail of the shuttle yet again. She screamed, throwing herself into Danny and burying her wet face into his chest, immediately starting to wail.

A thump came from an open window near the back as Uran pulled herself up to look inside. "You got the kid yet?"

"Yeah." He slowly stood up, looking slightly exhausted, and supported the child in his arms as he walked over to the window.

Uran's face fell. "Aw, she's crying! Poor lil' kid…"

"Uh. How— are we going to get her off me?" Danny asked, slightly embarrassed.

Urane reached in, patting the girl's shoulder to get her attention. "_Com'n, you have to be brave for us, OK? We have to get you back to your mom, and it might be a little rough. Do you think you can do it?_"

Tears still streaming down her face, she gave a fierce nod.

"Alright Danny, hand her over." He carefully leant out the window and positioned her against Uran's free arm and leg. Hold on! Uran shouted, crouching against the side of the bus and aiming herself in the opposite direction. With a leap that left the bus rocking slightly in her wake, she shot off, hitting the ground running. _Incredible,_ Danny thought, watching them vanish into the distance, _she didn't even shake the kid up at all. _He was still hanging over the window edge, not entirely inclined to move. _Right, gotta go look for the ghost and freeze it,_ he muttered, starting to gather himself, _I knew I should have gotten more sleep._

Just as he did, a series of wild screams came from the shuttle ahead, followed by a roar of overworked engines. Before he could even wonder what was happening, the bus did a hard left, slamming the window frame into his gut.

"HOLY FUCKING GOD WE'RE GOING TO _DIE!_" Tucker screeched over the deafening noise, clinging to a terrified-beyond-words Sam. Tenma leaned intently over the wheel, twisting it and slamming the brakes at the same time. Outside, the rear of the bus was beginning swing around to the front, screaming as it grazed pavement and sent sparks whizzing off behind them. Everyone held on for dear life as the left side tilted dangerously close to the blurred of cement.

"_DAMMIT TENMA, IT'S GOING TO CAPSIZE!_" Ochanomizu yelled.

But, despite the improbable odds, the shuttle pulled out of the bone-rattling maneuver, Tenma floored the accelerator once again, and they shot off; narrowly missing the other bus as it screamed past. Behind them, they could hear the tremendous smash of its right side slamming into the cement blockade.

Unfortunately, that was the side Danny was on.

He clenched his jaw as he was thrown out of the bus against the wall, slumping down into the cramped little space created by the tilt of the vehicle. If the top half hadn't taken the brunt of the impact, he would've been pancaked.

Coughing and shielding himself from the rain of broken glass, he forced himself to get back on his feet. _Good thing I'm used to being thrown into walls, _he thought dismally.

A mechanical noise made him look up— all the shattered windows were swiftly being sealed off by iron shutters. Quickly, the anti grav engines went back on and it bobbed upright. _Crap!_ He thought, slapping both hands on the back of the bus a spit second before it went zero to sixty.

To his surprise, he was still hanging on. _Oh right… I can walk on walls. I forgot about that. And this is the rear end, so there's a little less wind resistance. _He was feeling a bit light-headed, so he took a moment to assess the situation.

His mid-side was aching and not responding well to pressure, probably from the collision. _Bruised ribs don't hurt right away, so it's probably a fracture,_ he paused to finger the area gingerly, _about one, two. Wow, I really wish I didn't get injured enough to immediately figure that out. _

He glanced behind himself, blinking furiously as the wind whistled past his eyes. _That must be one of the road blockades Uran told whoever to set up. So we've turned around, huh— damn. We're heading back towards the group of people who were this bus. That instant messaging thing Uran and Atomu do would be _really_ useful right now… where is Atomu, anyways? I'm not feeling particularly up to this._

Up to it or not, he started climbing.

"Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god."

"You can… _let go_ now, Tuck." Sam muttered, squirming uncomfortably.

"Oh god…"

She landed a bony elbow in his face, and he went sprawling.

Ochanomizu was looking a little hollow, gripping an armrest with knuckles pale as printer paper. He seemed to still be coming to terms with the fact they hadn't died. "_Good lord, Tenma, I can't believe you actually pulled that off!_"

"_Neither can I,_" Tawashi growled, looking a little pale himself, "_What the hell sort of driving did you do on that tourist bus of yours?_"

"_It was a multipurpose vehicle,_" he answered dubiously, "_Could you kindly look around and tell if we're still being followed? I can't see anything in the rearview mirror._"

Tawashi turned, scowling. "_It's still there, but a ways back._"

Tenma cursed. "_I hate these elevated streets, this would so much easier if we could just drive off road and abandon the car, a group of people is so much harder to track than a vehicle—_"

Tawashi raised an eyebrow. "_Multipurpose, you say._"

Something in the cab started to beep piercingly.

"_What's that?_" Ochanomizu asked warily. "Tucker!" Sam yelled, "Is that one of your stupid PDAs?"

Tucker, who had been rubbing his flattened nose, looked down in confusion. "I didn't bring a PDA," he protested nasally, stuffing his hands in his pockets, "I've only got…" he pulled out the radio, its screen blinking the name of the caller: Jazz.

-Amity Park-

Jazz must have crushed the radio in her pocket against wall just right, but next thing she knew Tucker's scratchy, staticky voice was shouting "JAZZ! JAZZ ARE YOU THERE?" from her front pocket.

She stumbled back from the Op center window, nearly dropping her Fenton Rifle in shock. Hastily she pulled out the small device, yelling back to Tucker in bewilderment. "TUCK? IS THAT YOU?"

A few seconds past and she wondered if she was just going insane.

"HOLY HELL, IT"S JAZZ! Sam! Sam!"

"JAZZ? Jesus, it really is! We must be close enough to a tear for it to get through!"

"Where are you guys?" She asked, body aching with relief.

"Is she —" "It's lagging, Tucker."

Pause.

"You're not gonna believe it, Jazz," Sam said, "But we're in another dimension!"

"It's not the Ghost Zone we're talking about, either. This is a different another dimension."

"Also, Japan."

"Futuristic Japan! This bus we're in ain't got wheels!"

Jazz winced at a particularly loud explosion shook the Op center, and she quickly slammed the window closed to cut off the background noise. "Those tears were rips in the actual fabric of space and time? That's incredible! We've never even begun to theorize about universes other than ours or the Ghost Zone!"

There was another period of static.

"Uh, Jazz? What was that? What's going on over there?" Sam asked in concern. Jazz sighed heavily.

"The, uh, attacks— got worse. It's been like this for a day or two now, they come in waves to siege us. We managed to get the town evacuated during one of the lulls. Mom and Dad are taking out the larger ones below, and I'm sniping the flying ones up here…" she slapped her forehead. "Drat! I forgot to go down and tell them!" She rushed to the elevator.

"Oh Christ... And you haven't even made contact with Valerį́́̕é̛͡͡ ý̶é̴̢̛̀t? Ớ̴̢͝ŕ̵͡ ̧̛t́h̢e̶͘͟ Gù̸̵̕͜ý́͝s̸͢͠͠ ̶̛̛͟į̡̕͠͝n̶͞͞ ̕͢White?" Static swelled in the middle of the sentence, nearly swallowing the space between "Valerie" and "White."

"No, unfortunately."

"What about Dani?"

"You expect me to get a hold of her? She's never in the same place twice! Besides, imagine explaining that one to Mom and Dad."

The elevator let her out to the kitchen, where Mr. Burkes was cowering at the table with his hands over his ears.

"I̸͢͏̧ ͘͜͠t̴҉h͞o͘͜͜u̴̕g̸͞hţ̸͠ Tuc͢ker gave her a cell phone the last time she visited!"

"What's her number, then? Can we be sure it's even on?"

An odd metal-on-metal slamming noise came over the line, followed by a man yelling something furiously in Japanese.

"Uh— Danny knows it. It might be in his cell's call list."

"Where is Danny? What's going on over there?" she waited tensely for a response as she navigated through the house to the ground level battle stations.

"Well, we kinda got oursel̢v̵ȩs̀ a̵ ̕p̧r͠oblem over here, too—" "Cut to the chase Tucker." Sam muttered, "The connection's not exactly improving." "—Ghosts are coming into this dimension and possessing ̶r̷obo͠t̀s iń a̴n̵ a͠t͍̟̦͓̘̰̼ͤ͜t͂͂empt to kill the one dude who can get us back."

"You can get back? Is Danny OK?" The static was getting really bad now.

"Yeah, ͟Dań͟ny̕͝'̵̧s͠ ̢f̷i̵̷̢n͞e̴̷ but it s̡o͢ún̶ds͟ ̨̕l̵̢͘i̕͜ke you ̛g̸̕u͜͠yś̵̛ ́͟͡àŕ̀͟e͘͟͞n̸͠'́t̀ ̴͝d̵̢o̸͜͜i̧n͘͟͝g͢͝ ̵̀ ̨͞so well."

"We'll be fine! But we need you back!" she practically shouting into the radio now, but nothing came out but noise.

"Sam?"

Nothing.

"TUCKER?"


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20.

"Jazz! JAZZ!" Sam yelled, but the line had already gone dead. "We must be out of range! We need to go back!"

"Like hell we are!" Ochanomizu said, "We'll get killed!"

Uran's hearing may not have been anywhere near as acute as her brother's, but it was more than enough for her to tell that the engine noise half a mile away was getting louder. If she had blood, she would have gone pale.

"_Everyone needs to move to side of the road. NOW._" She barked.

"_What's wrong?_" one of the men asked her.

"_They're coming back._"

A murmur of horror spread through the group, and they all immediately complied.

"_I'm going to message in a police helicopter and go see what's happened over there, so I need all of you to NOT MOVE, you hear me!_" Enough of them nodded to reassure her, and she took off like a bolt of lightning.

_There's two— that means Danny hasn't frozen the ghost yet. Darn it, I knew I shouldn't have left him alone! He looked practically dead on his feet! _She dropped the tattered remains of her skirts and sped up, letting the wind and her blurred legs shred them. _They must've reached the end of the road and turned around… Wow, at this speed? Does Tenma drive getaway cars in his spare time? _She shook her head and focused on contacting the police emergency network.

Danny had been crawling across the roof, going inch by inch against the wind, when he saw a familiar looking girl with roadrunner legs coursing towards them. She braked hard as they streamed past, and seemingly ignoring the fact she had just torn her shoes off her feet, bolted back in the other direction.

"Hey Uran!" Danny yelled over the wind and distance as she appeared beside them, making pace with the bus.

"What's going on! Why did you turn around?"

"Uh, because there was a wall?"

"Why are you on top of the bus?"

"I kinda got knocked out of it when it hit the barricade, and then it sealed all the windows."

"You were WHAT?"

"I'm fine, really! I'm actually sort of used to being thrown into walls."

Uran glared at him vehemently. "Can't you go through the walls into the bus?"

"I'd get left behind if I did that."

"YOU CAN FLY."

"Theoretically, yes," Danny shouted, starting his climb to the front again, "But honestly I think I'm a too dizzy right now for that."

Uran smacked her head with her hands and yelled at him, briefly slipped into Japanese in her rage. "_YOU IDIOT! YOU'RE HURT! YOU SHOULDN'T BE DOING THIS!_"

Helicopter blades sounded in the distance, and Uran felt a burst of relief. God bless fast response, the people taken off the road before they reached them. Of course, being Atomu's sister gave her calls a bit more zing; when she called it frequently meant actual city-threatening disaster.

"Hey, Uran!"

Uran turned.

"Where's the brain on this thing anyways?"

"The bit before the front window, like where the hood would be on a car!" she called.

"That's what I figured," he said, grinning.

Uran watched him for a while, then shouted "Isn't there _anything_ I can do?"

"I'm fine, thanks!"

She fell silent for a while, seething with frustration, when Danny suddenly noticed she was gone. "Uran?" he yelled, propping himself up on the windshield.

Suddenly a massive crunch came from the back of the bus, and Danny flattened himself in panic as the far left corner started to drag with a horrible grating sound.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?" he screamed, wincing at the twinge it drew from his ribs.

"Slowing it down!" she yelled back, pulling her bare foot away from the gaping hole it had made in the undercarriage. She was clinging to the rear of the vehicle, her fingers digging holes in the sheet metal.

Danny gritted his teeth, but he couldn't go back to tell her off; and shouting once had gotten him a very firm disapproval from his sore ribs. He decided to ignore her and made the final stretch to the front of the bus, where he immediately started his search for the ghost by plunging his arm beneath the metal surface and groping around blindly, waiting for his hand to run into it.

That was an odd thing about intangibility and ghosts— ectoplasm couldn't go through ectoplasm that well, making the act of phasing through another ghost like hitting a bucketful of water. Doable, if not slightly difficult and unpleasant. Ghost Nets worked by simply turning the resistance up to eleven.

It also made it fairly easy to tell when a ghost was possessing someone, or something in this case.

His fingers finally hit a thick area, and he grinned. "Gotcha!" he said, grabbing and yanking as hard as he could. Taken by surprise, the green slimeball found itself halfway out before it could even start resisting. It desperately stuck it self to something inside and writhed furiously in his grip, chittering angrily. Danny muttered in anger as his Ghost Sense finally went off, a feature that was pretty useless when it came to possession.

But he had other things to worry about— the bus was starting to weave dangerously under the limited control, its smashed and dragging engine in the rear corner throwing them further off balance. "Com'n you little bastard, I need all of you tangible before I can freeze you," he muttered.

The shuttle was quickly overtaking them, and the ghost seemed to notice this in dismay. It upped its efforts, wriggling like a frantic eel, but saw that the fight was clearly going nowhere and abruptly stopped. Danny stared in confusion, still pulling; when his sinuses felt a familiar burning sensation.

"Ah!" he yelped, letting go instinctually as the chemical seared his palms. The ghost snapped back into the nose of the bus like a loaded rubber band, and the vehicle promptly straightened out and started to speed up, back corner screaming against the pavement. He cursed in frustration, plunging both arm and head in this time and yanking as hard as he could.

Everyone in the shuttle turned to stare at the dangerously swerving vehicle following them from a few hundred feet off. Its back corner was dragging and making a horrible noise, sending a shower of sparks spiraling off into the distance.

"_What the hell are they doing?_" Ochanomizu said.

"Is that Danny on the front?" Sam murmured, worry in her voice.

Uran clung on for dear life as the bus thrashed about like an animal._ I haven't slowed it down enough,_ she thought, starting to inch over to the other engine.

Danny had gotten a grip on it again and was slowly pulling the creature out. He channeled his energy to his hands until they began radiate with white-hot green energy— even if it planned to burn him, he was going to burn it first.

The ghost screeched at this new development, the pain making it snap out of the bus in surprise. The vehicle instantly began to veer off to the left, and as quickly as it had come the ghost phased out of his grasp and shot back in.

Danny once again cursed, his empty hands closing down on empty air with an icy crunch. _Why didn't it do that before? Was it too busy driving to phase at the same time? These little beasties certainly don't have much in the way of brain power. _He reached for it yet again, but it seemed to have settled deep enough to be out of his reach.

_Screw this,_ he muttered, _I'm just freezing the whole damn thing._

Danny clapped his hands down on the metal cone of the bus and droplets of condensation quickly began to form, the thin sheet of ice capturing them before they could even be blown off by the wind. Suddenly, part of the ghost's amebic body lashed out and smacked his hands away, twisting off balance. The wind and momentum assisted in slamming his sore side into the windshield. "Ow. Ow. OW. That was dirty, you little sonovabitch!" he hissed at the hiding ghost, attempting to regain his balance on the icy sloped surface.

At that moment a familiar crackle of Atomu's rockets came from way above, and Danny looked up— just as Uran decided to take out the second engine. The sickening crunch was followed by the entire five or so tons of metal that formed the rear of the bus slamming into concrete, and Danny was immediately thrown off and tumbled over the side.

He found himself a few seconds later lying stomach down on the pavement. The world was momentarily sideways, but he held his head up and the view made sense again.

He watched the retreating vehicles, the thought of getting up not really surfacing in his mind. He could see Uran still clinging to the back end of the bus; which was doing some monstrous imitation of a child's toy, bouncing against the pavement with deafening clashes.

Sort of deafening— they reached his ears like distant thunder, coming after the actual strike.

Like a bullet out of the sky, Atomu slammed smack into the middle of the roof and crushed the bus into a gigantic V. Danny's ears rung, and the ground beneath him shuddered, spreading out a ripple of hairline cracks. He heard Uran whoop as her end was thrown up, as if she was amusement park ride. Atomu rose from the dent on his rockets, holding a Thermos, and a blue flash told him that the ghost had been taken care of. _He's lost his clothes again,_ Danny thought absentmindedly.

His neck was getting sore, but when he put his head down everything went sideways, and he felt like he was going to fall off the edge of the earth.

Meanwhile, the shuttle backed up along side the wreck, and Tucker and Sam ran out, pausing to stare at the devastation. Atomu landed and Uran hopped down from the rear of the bus, and more people came out of the shuttle. He couldn't see them very well, but Tucker was probably having a massive geek out, and Atomu was probably handing back the Thermos to Sam.

He felt vaguely inclined to visit them, but he seemed to be too dizzy.

They were pretty far away.

The heat wavered above the road, and it occurred to him that Sam, Tucker, and Atomu and Uran were facing him. They were walking, too. It was hard to tell because they were smeared like a melting ice cream sundae— Tucker was chocolate and Sam was French vanilla. _Haha, that's funny._

He felt thirsty.

Atomu's voice carried far enough to reach his ears. He had been talking before, but only his mouth moved. Now he spoke words, too.

"What's all that green stuff?"

Sam froze, then suddenly started running. "Danny!" she screamed. Tucker was running and yelling, too.

They were like that woman, yelling for Haruhi. Was he in danger? He ached, but it was hard to tell where. It was hard to think.

Sam and Tucker were sitting right in front of him now, and Atomu and Uran. He got up on his elbows, but the rest of him wouldn't move. "Oh my god. Oh my god," she was saying. Tucker was wide eyed, not saying anything.

They were looking behind him.

He heard Atomu say "It's an open fracture of the tibia. Don't touch it, I'm calling the hospital." He sounded so serious.

Uran was hysterical. "I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry! The end of the bus must have hit him when he fell off, and I was the one who kicked out the engines! This is my fault! I'm so sorry!" she wailed miserably.

"Why?" Danny asked.

They stared at him.

"He's disoriented, it's a reaction to acute stress," Atomu explained.

There were more people now, lots, but he couldn't see any of their faces. They spoke in Japanese, but their voices seemed to be coming to him through water. Most of them wore uniforms.

"_Why is his blood green?_"

"_He's bleeding? I was beginning to think he was a robot._"

"_What is he then?_"

All of them were looking behind him.

He started to look too, but Atomu gently stopped him with a hand to the cheek. "He's already in shock," he told Sam and Tucker, "The last thing he needs to see is his bone sticking out of his leg."

Then Danny reverted to human and passed out.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21.

"What the bloody hell _took_ you so long?"

Danny yelled, sitting up like a shot as Atomu walked in. He immediately regretted this action.

"Careful, it looked like your ribs didn't like that," Sam said, grabbing his shoulders to steady him as he leaned back, clutching his side and gritting his teeth. The hospital bed provided some support for his torso, so he wasn't lying so much as sitting in a lawn chair with a mattress. I still made it difficult to look anyone in the eye, though.

"I'm sorry," Atomu sighed, "But it certainly would have helped if the Thermos was somewhere where I actually could have _found_ it. I had to get that one from the Speeder."

Danny frowned. "I thought the Speeder was locked."

"We'll fix it."

"What?"

Uran timidly leaned out from behind her brother. "Uh… I'm really really sorry," she said, not looking up.

Atomu turned, lowering his head to try and look her in the eye. "Uran, it's fine. No one here blames you for anything." She shuffled her feet and didn't say anything.

Danny frowned. "Come on, it was my fault too. We were being stupid together— if I blamed you I'd be blaming myself in the process."

Uran looked up sorrowfully, and Atomu ruffled her hair. "See, I told you. Now go bother Ochanomizu."

"Ok," she said, smiling a little before she vanished out the door and down the hallway.

"Oh, Danny!" Sam exclaimed, after the sound of her little skipping footsteps had faded out of range. "While were in the shuttle— Jazz called!"

"Jazz called?" he shouted, nearly springing up again and hissing at the jolt of pain. "What did she say? Any news?" he asked, refusing to let it deter his excitement.

"Uh, well… I'm afraid that 'making contact and affirming we're not dead' is pretty much the only good news. The attacks have gotten worse, enough for them to evacuate the entire town. When she called they were in the middle of being sieged by the little buggers."

"And they still haven't gotten in contact with Valerie?" He asked, pulling on his cast leg in an attempt to get into a more upright position.

"…Or the Guys in White."

"Graah! Ok, seriously! How hard can it be to just _CALL_ them?"

Sam sighed. "Valerie's _backpacking,_ Danny. And the Guys in White are a covert government agency."

"Right. That's a problem."

"Oh!" she tapped her thigh. "We brought up Danielle, though!"

Danny smiled. "Haha… the other Danny! She can definitely help."

"The other Danny?" Atomu asked, puzzled. He pulled up a spare chair and sat down on the other side of the bed.

"She's the only other half ghost that we know exists."

Sam raised an eyebrow. "Besides Vlad."

Danny grimaced. "Ignoring that. She's like a little sister to me… in fact, we're sort of related—"

"She's his clone." Sam interjected, in practiced deadpan.

Atomu's jaw dropped. "What? How— how did that even happen? And — how can a clone of you be a girl?"

"Long story, she's an imperfect clone." Danny said, waving a hand to dismiss it.

"Oh. Of course," Atomu said skeptically.

"Though she's kind of all over the place nowadays, so they might have difficulty contacting her— you did give her cell phone, right Tuck?"

Tucker sat silently on his chair, curled into the fetal position. He was watching the immaculately white walls with barely masked dread.

"Hey. Earth to Tuck."

"Yes. I did," he said, squirming like an impatient child. Danny scowled at him.

"Oh, snap out of it. You're the one who can flee at any moment, I'm pretty much incapacitated here. Granted, if someone walked in with a tray of surgical tools, I'd be gone regardless…"

"What the hell is wrong with you two! It's a just a fucking _hospital!_" Sam yelled furiously.

"Language, please. This is the pediatrics ward." Atomu said firmly.

"I mean, I don't care about Tucker, he's been like this since forever. Hell, he probably tried to crawl back in the womb screaming once he saw where he was. But _you!_ What's with this development?"

"I never told you?" Danny asked, surprised.

Sam paused. "Uh, no?"

"You know when I shattered one of the bones in my arm and they sent me over to the hospital on Fremont Road?"

"What? What happened there?"

"Every night, like clockwork, this _creepyass_ ghost would come over and absorb some of the medical equipment. I think it was going through the electronics and scrap yard during the day, too— that place was close enough to the hospital for me to see it out my window. One night I tried to chase it off because it was freaking out the hospital staff, and the moment I got within two yards of it, she attacked me with a _five foot long needle._"

Tucker turned gray. "Thanks for the nightmares, pal."

"Oh, yeah!" Sam murmured thoughtfully, "I remember that… your parents were pissed off. The whole reason they were keeping you in the hospital was to discourage you from trying to fight until your arm healed, right?"

Danny laughed, then continued uncomfortably. "Yeah, yeah, but you know me. And… uh… that kind of made me think— really start to think— about the number of people who've strapped me to operating tables and threatened to dissect me. It was kind of a… horrifying realization."

Sam looked at him curiously. "Wow, and here I thought you were going to change the subject."

"Well, it made Tucker squirm. I'm good." He said, grinning. Tucker glared at him.

"Huh." Atomu suddenly said, making them turn. It was easy to forget he was in the room, he seemed to enjoy watching them interact more than contributing to the conversation. He noticed their stares with a start and protested "No, no. Carry on."

"Hey hey, backtracking for a second," Tucker interjected, "You said that the—" he shuddered, "—hospital ghost was absorbing electronics, right?"

"Yeah."

"That sounds like Technus."

Danny shook his head wildly. "NO. That _thing_ was not Technus."

"Slinking around a hospital really isn't his style anyways, is it?" Sam added.

"Slinking in general is not Technus's style." Danny affirmed.

"Hold it!" Atomu said, "I've heard this conversation before, when we were talking in the Speeder. You guys were debating the ghost behind the current attacks was another ghost named Technus, but decided that the attack style wasn't like him. Do you think this could be the same one?"

They considered it.

"Maybe."

"Who knows?"

"We get thousands of different ghosts coming through town on a regular basis, though…"

"It sounds reasonable to _me._"

"What'd she look like?"

Danny paused. "Actually, that's the creepiest part. She was like a posable mannequin from a department store or something, segmented all over and everything. Her body kept getting more distorted as she absorbed more stuff each night, though, which really didn't help with the creepiness. Also— her face had like, no expression at all, even when she was trying to kill me. One side of her face, where her eye was, was sort of melted and blackened all around like some sort of horrible burn scar, and there were cracks running from the corners of her mouth back to her ears. I never saw her actually talk— occasionally she would try to make noises when she was wandering around absorbing things, but it always sounded more like someone strangling a goose."

"Hmm." Atomu looked thoughtful, but he said nothing.

"Ow," Danny moaned, flopping his head back down on the bed and rubbing his neck. "This thing really isn't a high enough angle."

"Have Atomu bend it for you," Sam joked.

"Yeah! Did you see what he did to that bus?" Tucker said, suddenly excited, "He completely demolished that thing, like wwsh~ KAPOW!" He made the appropriate hand gestures.

"Yeah, Atomu…" Danny said, smiling, "I think Uran mentioned something about you lifting a cargo ship, too."

"You did what?" Tucker asked, eyes going wide.

Atomu responded, slightly flustered. "That was an emergency, something as small as me lifting a something as big as that puts serious stress on the structural skeleton of the boat, not to mention compromises the safety of the people on it."

"That's still friggin' incredible though."

Atomu laughed quietly, lifting a hand to ruffle the hair on the back of his head. "I've had to do worse, really."

"Like what?"

"Tell us!" Tucker said enthusiastically.

"Uh… well, last winter I had to stop a fair sized asteroid it was entering the atmosphere."

"Wooah!" Tucker exclaimed, "That's like… you can survive space and reentry under tremendous pressure? What the hell are you made of?"

Danny frowned. "Tucker, what did I say about _ques_—"

"Mainly carbon fiber and Grade 5 and 38 titanium alloy. I'm still way heavier than I look, though."

Sam leaned back in her chair. "We had an asteroid problem, once. But it was about the size of Mars, so we got all the ghosts together and turned the planet intangible."

Atomu blinked. "You did… what?"

"Ha!" Danny said pointedly, "I like how you said that, all 'like a walk in the park, it was!' Remember when all of you thought I was dead?"

"Christ, yeah. If the unmanned Fenton Jet had gone just a _little_ below the portal, your parents still wouldn't know…"

There was a silent gap in the conversation.

"That makes me feel horrible now. Here we are, yammering away, while they're out there alone and fighting for their lives against an army of ghosts," Danny muttered angrily, "And I'm not even in good enough condition to stand." He rubbed his side. "Or sit up, for that matter."

Sam sighed. "Oh _come on_, as long as you refrain from doing pilates in bed, those broken ribs should be gone by morning."

Atomu glanced between them. "You realize he cracked those ribs, right? It can take a month or two recover fr—" he stopped, noticing how they were looking at him and narrowing his eyes. "…There's something I don't know, is there," he said. "Danny, how long did it take you to heal that shattered arm you mentioned?"

"About a week," Danny replied, grinning.

Atomu shrugged. "I stand corrected, they will be gone by morning. But if you can really heal that fast, why does this break bother you? It's a single break and some torn muscle, if you can heal a shattered arm in just seven days, this should take you, what. Three?"

"Yeah, probably— but as the situation stands, my family kind of needs help, like, yesterday."

Atomu nodded slowly. "From what I've heard, true. And even if they do build this portal in record time, you're not going to be in any shape to go back. But then we could at least send you two back," he said pointing to Sam and Tucker.

"Oh, no no no," Sam said, waving her hands.

"Compared to Danny, we're both worthless in battle," Tucker insisted.

"Like hell you are!" Danny protested, "When you two stop bickering and cooperate, you turn the Specter Speeder into a very frightening machine of war."

Sam and Tucker glared at him. "Don't you get it, dude? We're not. Leaving. Without you. Even if it does involve sitting in hospitals."

"Aauuugh," Danny moaned in despair, "Curse you, why must you refuse to abandon me?"

Soon after that, Ochanomizu poked his head into the room, a group of curious nurses behind him trying to get a look at Atomu.

"We've made arrangements to move to the Ministry."

"Joy," Sam rolled her eyes, "Do I need to get paper bags for you two?"

"I'll live. Dunno about Tuck though."

"I'm fine, thank you very much," he replied caustically.

"Yes, because 'pale and hyperventilating' is such the epitome of fine-ness."

Ochanomizu ignored them and stepped aside to let the nurses in. "At least I get a free ride," he said cheerfully as they flanked the gurney and started to wheel him out.

"At this rate, Tucker will too," Sam growled, "Seeing as I'm going to _drag_ him out of his beloved chair."

"A piggy back ride would be acceptable, too," he replied.

"Get your ass out here, you dweeb!" she yelled, raising a threatening fist. Tucker scampered out, covering his head with his hands. Atomu followed quietly behind them, his presence immediately attracting stares.

One of the young nurses pushing the gurney watched him anxiously, whispering with her friend. Finally the friend elbowed her, and she stumbled briefly before hastily righting herself and peeling off to talk to him. Danny watched the conversation out of the corner of his eye. Looking like she was about to die of humiliation, she sidled up next to him.

Atomu noticed her and greeted her warmly. "_Hello miss. What's the matter?_"

"_Ah…_" she rubbed her shoulders fretfully, "_I wanted to— thank you. You helped in the Tama District Airship Disaster, right?_"

"_Yes, of course._"

"_My sister and I were two of the people you got out of that building. So… thank you very much._"

"_Oh yeah! I remember you and your sister!_"

"_You do?_"

"_Your sister was pinned when the ceiling caved in, I lifted the beam and you pulled her out! How is she doing?_"

The nurse looked shocked but quickly donned an excited expression. "_She's doing wonderful, sir. After rehab she regained full use of her legs._"

He smiled. "_That's a relief. And actually, I need to thank you. You were very brave, staying calm like that and helping your sister. Most people would succumb to stress in that situation. Thank you for your self control, you really helped your sister._"

Danny watched as the woman bowed frantically, Atomu returning the gesture before she ran back to her friend at the gurney, looking like she had downed a box of happy pills with a shot of caffeine. They returned to whispering with furious excitement.

_He really is quite a celebrity, huh?_ he thought. It reminded him of a few encounters he'd had himself, especially right after his identity got out. As the media fire began to die down, he was swamped by random people stopping on the street to thank him for saving their lives. Danny soon became certain that if it continued much longer the kitchen was going to become buried in a sea of flowers and handwritten thank you cards. After so many nights of sending his nights getting beaten up and then going tired and unacknowledged the next day, the response was incredible and profound. Danny had suddenly realized how much these people _cared._

But Atomu had probably been receiving praise like that all his life. _It's amazing he can still smile and be relieved when he learns someone he saved is ok. From how people react to him you'd think he's had personal contact with everyone in this city. _

_Of course, what's really amazing is that he can remember any of them,_ he thought dryly, _but I guess that's just a robot thing. I mean, spitting out the exact time, back on the roof saying the years things happened like reading from a history textbook. Wouldn't be more useful to just say how long ago it was be more useful?_

He watched the white walls flow past the side of his gurney. _Makes me wonder long ago it was… what were those dates? Damn, now that's going to be bothering me all day…_


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22.

"Whoa, this place is huge," Tucker muttered.

It was indeed exactly as a he said— the Ministry storage area _was_ huge. In a vast area below the ground floor, it was basically one giant two-story high room spanning the circumference of the entire building and supported by a grid of massive pillars. These stood in line with the heavy steel shelving units, which were stocked with shipping boxes all the way to the distant ceiling. Extremely tall, dangerous looking forklifts roamed through the canyons of boxes, accompanied by swarms of clipboard holding men in florescent orange vests.

"These are just supplies, what we're looking for is in the way back," Atomu explained to Tucker, then in Japanese to the rest of the non Ministry-savvy people in the group. There were a great deal of them, as well, seeing how Tawashi and his swarm of policemen were still absentmindedly tagging along behind Makube. Makube did not look particularly pleased to be surrounded by policemen, or for that matter the situation in general.

"_Makube, do you have the number?_"

"_Ah— yes. ONYS-1206T,_" he said distractedly; reciting it without needing to look at the paper slip given to them by the main desk.

They started walking, Tucker, trailing along behind and gaping ceiling-ward. "Come on!" Atomu said earnestly, pulling him away as he nearly crashed into an orange-vested man, "Dawdle around here and you're going to get run over. Do you want to go back to the infirmary?"

Tucker turned a shade paler and stuck out his tongue. "No thanks. Sam can sleep there for all I care, but if I stayed there any longer I'd probably jump out the window yodeling or something."

"They're dating, right?"

Tucker paused and scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Yes… did Danny tell you? They're not exactly vocal about it."

"No, I just inferred."

Tucker's eyes lit up with a question. "Are you programmed to feel love?"

Atomu frowned, turning and walking backwards in front of him. "Geez, and I thought Danny was blunt! I measure you a cinder block to his brick."

"Sorry. It's kind of a classic question though…" he said, casting his eyes downward.

—Then back up again, optimistically eager. "But are you going to tell me anyways?"

Atomu rolled his eyes and went back to walking normally, still in front of him. "The simple answer is no. I do love many things, like this city, my family, the Ministry, the people in the Ministry. But based on context, I really doubt you're talking about that type of love."

"Huh. Well— I guess that makes sense. In hindsight would be kind of creepy of Ochanomizu had programmed romantic love into you. You _do_ kinda look like a ten-year-old."

"Tucker… Is 'awkward' the only type of conversation you specialize in?"

"Hey!"

"Besides, Ochanomizu wasn't even on the team who made me."

"Really?" Tucker asked incredulously, running up next to him. "Then who did your programming? Wait! No, scratch that. Who engineered you?" he said excitedly.

"Makube engineered my current design, though it was a largely superficial change from the old one."

"Then who are the people who did your old design and programming?" Tucker asked impatiently.

He paused for a second before answering that. "Both my programming and old design were done by one person."

Tucker's eyes went as wide as dollar coins. "What? Who?"

Atomu gave him a withering look. "Ask Danny. He'll tell you if he's so inclined."

"Whaaaaat? You've told _Danny_, but you won't tell _me?_" He complained.

"I had a reason to tell him. Besides, as charmingly blunt as you may be; the answers you want are getting uncomfortably personal."

Tucker sulked. "You know," he muttered, "It's much easier to just say 'mind your own business.'"

"Ah, but you see… I'm not blunt."

"AUAARUOORGHH," Tucker moaned, swatting apathetically at Atomu as the boy danced out of reach, grinning.

"You sound like a zombie with a hangover," he said critically, fighting the urge to laugh.

"Oy! Would you two stop fooling around? We found the right box!"

Atomu switched to business mode. "_Let's check the contents before we do anything!_" he said loudly, walking up, "_Clear off to the sides. I'm pulling it out._"

Though thankfully on the bottom shelf, the box itself was a rather sizable steel shipping container about the size of a couple of Hummers. Despite these seemingly hindering factors, Atomu made like a forklift and had the thing off in no time. Enlisting the help of a few of the police officers they undid the latches and took of the lid. Atomu clambered up to the top of the rim and wolf-whistled. "_It's what we want, for sure._"

Tucker came up hopefully, making puppy dog eyes; and Atomu groaned and pulled the athletically challenged boy up with him. Tucker peered over the edge, wobbling before he sat down. "Whoa, it looks like a giant mutant version of the Ghost Portal."

"That's a good sign, I trust," he muttered, hopping down into the interior and looking for a way to squeeze into the actual portal chamber, "_Ochanomizu! Call a lifter, will you? I'd enjoy not having to carry it all the way back, thanks._"

Ochanomizu scowled. "_Sure, why not! We'll just stand around and do nothing in the meantime, since you're so busy spelunking in the thing!_" he snapped.

"Ochanomizu seems kinda pissed, doesn't he?" Tucker said, watching him over his shoulder.

Atomu was squirming, attempting to work his way through a crack between the mouth of the machine and the metal wall, but he paused a moment to shrug and give an apathetic sigh. "Tenma's still here. As long Tenma's here, he's going to do pretty much nothing but sulk in random corners."

"Huh." Tucker scratched his nose. "So what work did Tenma do? He used to be a Ministry big shot, right?"

Atomu paused. "Oh, mainly management and press meetings. You know, big shot stuff. Despite his incredible genius for robotics he was rarely ever involved in official Ministry projects." He repositioned his legs and shoved the huge cylinder into the other side of the box, making a terrific noise.

"Jesus! Warn me before you do that!" Tucker laughed, nervously scrabbling to regain his balance while the sound faded to a creepily low ring.

"_Hey, don't break it!_" Makube's panicked voice called.

"Sorry!" Atomu called back, his voice echoing as he slipped through the widened crack into the machine.

Tucker leaned over to look, but the way of entry was far too small for him. "What's it like in there?"

"Dark," Atomu replied, flicking on his eye beams and noticing something in the far corner.

"Ah," Tucker said, looking around the warehouse. He spontaneously laughed. "You know, the box ghost would just have an absolute party in here!"

"The what?" Atomu asked, momentarily distracted.

"The box ghost. He controls boxes."

"That's… nothing if not odd," Atomu said, his footsteps clanking as he walked towards the other end.

"Yeah, but you know— they're his obsession. Ghosts tend to have an obsession with something from their human life."

Atomu stopped instantly. "…Danny told me that ghosts were never alive to begin with."

"Oh." Tucker said. "Well, it's true on some part… they only make up a small portion of ghosts, and they're more like an echo of consciousness that's been picked up by ectoplasm than an actual person. Danny probably said that because it makes him feel less dead."

"I see." There was silence inside the box for a while. "_Hey, Makube._"

Makube's head jerked up, and he snapped to attention like a trained dog. "_Yes?_"

"_Is this your toolbox?_"

His eyes practically lit up. "_Yes! Yes, it is! Can you get it for me?_"

Sure, Atomu replied, which was followed by some scraping within the box. Makube, moving like a man half his age, sprung up onto the edge next to Tucker with a slightly desperate expression. Atomu's hand stuck out, rattling a slim green box with black handles.

"_Thank you so very much,_" Makube said earnestly, quickly grabbing it and leaping down. Ochanomizu came walking back then, still looking crabby. "_They're coming any minute now, Atomu. Do you plan to get out of there anytime today?_"

"_Just a second,_" he called, walking back to pick up the small object that had been under the toolbox. It was a photograph, framed in velvet, a moment capture of a man and a woman standing together and smiling in what looked like a karaoke bar. The man was a younger Makube, the woman a realistic android with short black hair with bangs.

He brushed the dust off the edges and pocketed it.

—

English italicized, Japanese unitalicized.

A few minutes of massive transport elevators later they were in another huge room, this one mainly intended for assembly. Tucker wouldn't have known, but it was the same place the robot from the first attack had been taken.

"Whatever did happen to that construction robot?" Atomu asked Ochanomizu, waving a hand in Tucker's face to get him to stop asking him questions.

Ochanomizu looked up with a start, glancing towards the policemen. "Let's not talk about that right now, he hissed, I'm not sure Tawashi is—"

"The Edition 4 construction robot?" Tawashi said, making Ochanomizu flinch. "He was released under the premise of a bug hack, which is—" he slapped Ochanomizu on the back, "—not entirely true, as I have learned. However, the actual cause seems to be nigh identical in effects, so I don't really care." He turned and wandered back to his cloud of police officers. They were all clustered near Makube, who was anxiously glancing at his briefcase every few seconds.

"So yes, that's what happened," Ochanomizu said, looking at the officer's retreating back with reprehension.

"_Atomu, what are you guys talking about?_" Tucker muttered, leaning down near the smaller boy's ear.

"_It's not your business._"

"_Oh, come on!_" he whined, "_I can't understand anything when you guys talk in that language!_"

Atomu ignored him and watched as the orange-vested people and a group of heavy lifting robots unbolted the walls of the container and towed them away, leaving the prototype portal standing free. Finally he said, "_Tucker, if you're so curious then ask Ochanomizu._" Ochanomizu didn't stand a chance— Tucker was on him the second the words left Atomu's mouth. Atomu walked off, mouthing an apology before leaving him to be drowned by questions.

Tenma stood unnecessarily close to the portal, the orange vested workers moving briskly around him as they worked to safely unfold the box, some sending him odd looks. Atomu wove his way towards him, muttering about how he was going to get crushed by machinery.

"Tenma," he said, stopping beside him and folding his arms. It was more of a statement than anything else.

"It's about Makube, isn't it?" Tenma asked, not turning his head. He had that look on his face again— not really smug, but more of a strange half smile. It was the expression of a man who was not easily taken by surprise.

"Of course it's about Makube. The way he acts and how you described his quitting of the initial project unsettles me. The current void of information doesn't help, either."

"Oh? A void?"

"I'm afraid not even our three visitors have a bloody clue what's going on, Tenma."

"We should all start a club," he said cheerfully.

Atomu darkened his stare. "Don't give me that, Tenma! It's obvious you know more than any of us!"

"I know more? Have you considered asking Makube?"

"Oh, yes! _That'd_ definitely be affective! Given he didn't have a_ heart attack_ before I finished the question!"

"I say you give it a try anyways."

"Who was the young lady you were threatening to talk about?" Atomu asked.

"Oh, a singer or entertainer or something. Rumor had it they were romantically involved and then had a falling out around the time he quit the project."

He thought about this for a second. "Were this 'falling out' and the cancellation of the project in anyway related?"

Tenma stroked his goatee. "Probably."

"Probably? You were directly implying it back at his house!"

"No, just as I said; that was speculation."

"Oh, of course it was", he moaned in exasperation, "And I guess Makube just happened to react like that?"

"I know little about the situation and merely inferred that detail. Is it really so hard to accept?"

"Yes!" Atomu exclaimed, "Because when something weird's happening, you almost always know more than us, and then keep the information for yourself until it benefits you most to spit it out!"

"Hmm, true. But there's nothing in particular I would gain from this."

"Has that ever stopped you?"

Tenma didn't respond.

"Tenma, _look at me_. I've been speaking to you for over a minute, and you've glanced my way maybe twice."

"Thank you, but I'd rather not relive another argument with Toby."

"I'm not Toby." Atomu responded slowly, narrowing his eyes and imperceptibly tensing the muscles in his arms.

"You certainly look like him, though."

"If that's your problem, I'm afraid there's not much I can do about it."

"You know, it's been harder on me since your upgrade," he said stiffly, "It was Makube, right? He did a fine job of converting you to a realistic android, even though I still suspect he was avenging that time he spent as my intern."

Atomu suddenly grabbed him and dragged him off the floor out into the hallway, ignoring the shocked stares he got from Tucker and the scientists, then softly latched the door behind him.

Tenma frowned, gingerly pulling his sleeve free from Atomu's hand. "And what are we doing now?" he asked, deadpan.

Atomu dropped the doorknob and turned. "You think it hasn't hard for me, either?" he shouted, and Tenma stepped back in surprise. "You're a brilliant man, and I respect you for that. But god, are you INSUFFERABLE! If you're going to complain about something, complain about something that isn't your OWN FAULT!"

He paused to exhale slowly, then started again in a slightly unsteady voice. "I've lost people before, Tenma. I know what it's like. I can understand why you did… what you did. But I can not forgive you for your _complete_ and _utter_ LACK OF RESPONSIBILITY for your own work! You knew fully well what you were doing, but you were so caught up in your own misery and resentment you didn't care! I was a child, Tenma! You abandoned me and then destroyed me! Do you think that wasn't painful? Because it was! It still is!"

There was silence.

"At least you're looking at me now. That's an improvement," he said dryly.

Tenma sighed and folded his arms across his chest, but the movement had no aggression. That element had been drained from him. "Do you have anything else to complain about?"

"Oh, sure! I could go on for hours about how you're an antisocial jerk who's intentionally vague to get people to leave you alone; but right now I'm more concerned about whether or not _anything_ I just said sunk in."

"I'm a jerk, true, but someone thirty years younger than me just gave a lecture on responsibility," he said grimly. "I can take a hint."

"Thank god!"

A soft clanking noise came from the end of the hall, and they both jumped and turned toward the source. The electrician robot saw them and froze in mid step. He was one of the lanky humanoid models, designed to squeeze into tight places to fix wires and recharge cut-off electronics. They had built in tool belts and electric generators in their torso, which connected to an extension cord they had wound tightly and clipped to their chest.

"…Can we help you?" It twitched at his voice, like the sudden sound had pricked him.

"Atomu," Tenma said carefully, "I didn't hear any of the scientists call for an electrician robot."

Atomu sighed. "Here we go again," he muttered.


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23.

"_Run inside and warn them, OK?_" Atomu said in a whisper, examining the surroundings. The door was in the middle of the long hallway, and the fighting space was narrow. This was going to be problematic. And ask Tucker if he can do anything to help.

"_The black boy? I was under the impression that he didn't speak Japanese,_" Tenma answered tensely. The possessed robot, which had been watching them warily, seemed to have gotten used to their whispering and was starting to advance with more confidence.

Atomu glanced at him in exasperation. "_You know, one of these days you need to zap English into your own head._"

"_Why on earth would I do that? I might end up in a coma._"

Atomu resisted the urge to bang his head on the nearest wall. "_GO WARN THEM. OCHANOMIZU WILL TRANSLATE. And meet me in my office at six, because apparently you NEED MORE LECTURING._"

"_Yes teacher,_" he said, tipping his hat cheerfully before bolting through the closed door like it was a turnstile. At the sound of the door slam, Atomu was off like a shot, slamming a hooked arm into the robot's stomach. It was caught off guard but reacted lightning fast, twisting in his grasp. Atomu suddenly felt a shock go under his chest plate.

"Aah!" The jolt loosened his grip just enough for the lanky robot to torque out of the hold. They both defensively leapt back, Atomu still standing in the way of its path to the door. The low hum of its electric generator and the faint smell of brunt metal gave away what it had done.

Atomu chuckled. "_You're pretty clever, aren't you?_" It had managed to get the prongs of the wound extension cord to make contact with the edge of his chest hatch. The robot looked between him and the door, as if unsure of what to do next. _It must be another try at assassination, like the previous three attacks Tawashi mentioned. It clearly didn't come here to fight._ That was a troubling thought. He was already in a dilemma— this was a high functioning robot, he didn't exactly want to destroy it just for being controlled by a ghost. But, even if fighting wasn't its original intent, he was certain the stubborn ghost would try to anyways— at the expense of the robot's body.

Also, he yet again had no Thermos, so he was stuck using low power.

The robot began to take a slow step forward, and Atomu charged. It freaked out, doing a frantic sidestep and narrowly missing the tackle, quickly whipping out a pair of wire strippers and several meters of cord as it did. With the machine-like efficiency characteristic of robots, it had stripped four feet of it or so down to bare wire before the other android could even turn around.

Atomu rolled out into a crouch facing the possessed bot and realized with a start that over a meter of bare, sparking wire was coming directly at him. Atomu sprang back just in time for the crude electric whip to only scorch the ground below him. Persistent, the robot continued to drive him back with swipes of the crackling live wire. It was now exactly where Atomu didn't want it, with nothing between it and the door.

_This is ridiculous, _he thought,_ I'm making this hard for myself. I can take a little high voltage shock to the skin._

The robot lashed at him one final time, trying to distract him while it lunged for the door.

"_I don't think so!_" Atomu yelled, the whip snapping against his palms with such force the stray end whizzed into a coil around his arm. The stinging pulse of energy radiated through him. He gave fierce holler and used the whip in reverse, ripping both it and the robot back before hurling them clear into the far wall. _Good. Now it's well away from the door._

Hands still crackling with ozone and splotches of static fading from his vision, he wasted no time sprinting straight at it with a small clenched fist at the ready. Once again, though, the robot saw him coming and barely dodged the punch to its chest, frantically dancing behind him before he could change directions.

It wasn't that Atomu was too slow— he was too heavy. The lighter robot could turn around on a dime. Also, the blank white hallway left little room for surprise or tactics.

_If I go much faster, my hits will probably kill the robot,_ Atomu thought._ That's out of the question, and wouldn't work anyways. These ghosts are stubborn, but they aren't going to stick around in a dead body._ He had been expecting it to bolt for the door just a ways behind it, but instead an uneasy standoff had commenced.

He pulled his fist from the drywall, and the already weakened material crumbled to the floor to expose the bare wood, insulation, and metal beneath.

_I can't really fight it in close combat,_ he mused, _It'll just shock me again. What can I do? _

…_I guess the cleanest option here is to take out its legs._

Atomu readied his stance, only to be taken by surprise as the robot darted behind him, grabbing its whip as it did. He turned just in time to see it smash through an exposed gas pipe with its bare hand, and with a white hot arc of electricity the air in the hallway became fire.

-Less than a minute ago-

The door to the hallway banged open and slammed close in quick succession, and Tenma ran briskly into the room. Ochanomizu and Tucker glanced up from the blueprint, which Makube had lifted from Tenma's briefcase.

"What's his problem _now?_" Ochanomizu muttered loudly, in English.

"_What's wrong?_" Makube asked as Tenma loped up, breathing heavily and brushing his dark forelock out of his eyes. He slapped a hand on the table and did an open-handed point at Makube. "_I advise you leave._"

"Hey," Tucker said, "Ask him what he was talking about with Ato—"

"_What's that supposed to mean, Tenma?_" Ochanomizu spat, "_We just got him here!_"

Tenma gave him a sarcastic glare. "_Tell me. Did anyone here call for an electrical repair robot?_"

Makube looked confused. "_Of course not! We've barely started to plan the modifications, much less—_" a roar of ferocity came from the hall, followed by the thunder clap of something hitting a plaster wall at incredible speeds. Makube's eyes widened with oncoming panic. "_Oh,_" he said, then fled to the group of policemen.

Ochanomizu jumped back from the table, quickly looking in the direction of the sound then back at Tenma. "_Dammit, Tenma! You could have just __told __us that!_" Tenma sighed. "_Yes, yes, Ochanomizu. I've already been criticiz—_" He was interrupted by the second smashing of the wall, this time by a smaller object. "Uh, what was that?" Tucker asked, brow wrinkling in worry. "_Now enlighten the American boy, will you? And ask him if he has any of those 'ghost' weapons._"

"Does anyone even care that I'm here?" Tucker moaned. Ochanomizu turned his attention to him with frightening speed. "It's another possessed robot. Do you have any capturing equipment on you?" Tucker's eyebrows shot up. "What? No! All I have is a radio!"

Then the end of the hall exploded.

- Now. -

Atomu blinked heavily against the flames roaring past him, the searing heat not really affecting him beyond making it harder to see. The walls, however, were demolished. The pipe had managed to blow in two places, one in the wall separating them from the high-ceilinged assembly room.

The robot lay on the other side. He wasn't moving, so Atomu quickly diverted his attention, dashing against the roaring hot wind and crushing the nearest open pipes closed. He messaged _'Shut off gas in section 1-BD,'_ to Ministry Control just as the sprinklers finally turned on and pelted the burning hallway with water.

Atomu heard a shaky mechanical whir, and saw the robot was already standing. "Rrgh!" he hissed, springing forward and having it just barely brush past his fingers as it turn began to sprint to Makube and the panicked looking group of policemen, whip in hand.

Atomu just smiled and thought, _Finally, an open space to fight._

A glow lit the scattered rubble as his rockets came to life, making the water on his boots sear off with a swirl of steam. "_I really didn't want to have to do this,_" he murmured, feeling the plates on his finger smoothly slide back and the weapon start to charge with a gathering blue glow. With a flash of intensity, his rockets fired off and he shot across the room in a fraction of a second, the movement vibrating the windows as he swerved and braked out hard directly in front of the robot's path. It was still in midstep when he made a slashing motion with his finger and swept the concentrated beam of energy straight through it.

The robot crashed to the floor in two, the clatter making the rest of the room flinch. Atomu had cleanly severed its legs just below the waist, rendering it effectively immobile.

Sorry about the explosion, he managed to sever a gas line, Atomu said hurriedly as he landed and pinned the scrambling robot with a foot, grabbing the line and binding its arms. "Tucker, we're going to need to hurry if we want to contain this ghost." He said, yanking the knot tighter as it squirmed beneath him. "It's going to realize any minute now it's in a helpless position and leave."

"What was _that?_" Tucker asked, "Was that a _laser?_ Where is it?"

Atomu sighed impatiently, taking the sparking bare end of the cord and deliberately holding up his pointer finger. The plates slid back with a click to reveal the bare laser barrel. He quickly sliced off the bare, sparking length of wire and melted the plastic around the end.

"OH MY GOD YOU HAVE A LASER IN YOUR FINGER."

"Yes."

"How does it work tell me tell me!"

"It's just a laser, I'm sure you can figure it out. I have to go up to the Speeder," he said, hoisting the struggling robot over his right shoulder, then calling to the rest of them in Japanese: "_I have to leave for the moment! Keep track of those legs, I want them reattached by the end of the day!_"

"But—" Tucker started.

"No, you can't come with me. I'm not exactly going to take to elevator."

"_But what do we do if there's another attack?_" Makube protested, finally regaining the ability to speak.

"_That's what the police are for. I'm sure you'll be fine,_" he yelled as turned and ran out, the robot over his shoulder attempting to bite his arm.

Makube didn't look so sure, but the boy was already gone.

Atomu sprinted out into the employee parking lot, the possessed robot clanging against his right shoulder and the ghost inside chittering angrily. He skidded to a halt facing the building, then crouched and aimed for the roof. He sprang and they shot up like a champagne cork, shooting about twenty stories up before firing his rockets.

A slithering sound came from his right just as he breeched the roof, and he glanced over in alarm. The ghost was already abandoning its host, the telltale green slime reaching out from between two neck plates. Atomu slapped a hand over it as he swooped up next to the Speeder, but the ghost wasn't having any of that. Without the slightest hesitation it phased through his fingers and swept away, forming the rough shape of a four legged animal, sort of like an amebic dog. Quickly it turned and wriggled frantically up and away, its body thinning and squiggling back and forth like an eel.

_I _thought _it was smarter—it certainly looks like a more advanced creature than the others!_ Atomu thought, cutting off his astonished gaze and hastily clambering past the previously "removed" doorframe of the Speeder and snatching a Thermos before blasting out after it on his rockets.

"_I don't know where you're headed,_" he muttered, uncapping the Thermos, "_But you're not getting away._" He pressed the fire button and the ghost was caught in the broad blast of light, screeching as it was sucked in by the tractor beam. Its form stretched, spiraling and then finally disappearing into the container. He slammed on the cap, letting the animal's cry abate into the open air and be replaced by the traffic and city noises rising faintly up from below.

He exhaled slowly and gradually loosened his grip on the Thermos, turning it over in his small hands.

It had definitely been a more complex organism than the last two. It had translucent but clear cellular organs beneath its skin, enough cognitive power to make a tool, and a preferred form. More troublingly, it matched the description of the similar ghosts Sam and Tucker had claimed were attacking their town, Amity Park.

He looked up, the steady breeze ruffling his hair, and noticed something odd in the distance. A black sliver floated about 10 meters away in the air, hanging just above the tops of the distant buildings like a printer glitch in the sky.

_Is that…?_ He drew closer, and saw that it was.

A dimensional tear.

His first time actually seeing one.

It was completely surreal: a slim, jagged hole with nothing beyond its impossibly sharp edges but infinite empty darkness. He was probably 6 or so meters from it, but he dare not get closer for fear it drawing him in like the ghost into the Thermos. Even at this distance he could feel the gentle current pulling at him, contradicting the wind.

But he couldn't help but look at it and feel a pang of obligation, like he should let it take him. Danny was in no position to help his family, and with the portal nearing completion he was bound to go despite the state of his health. Sam and Tucker had chosen to stay with him, and as flawed as that decision might be, it wasn't right to force them into a battlefield. They had mentioned a girl name Danielle, Danny's alleged clone, but chances of contacting her seemed positively grim.

But then again, if he went… who would protect Makube and the city? Past experience had left him with little faith in the police, even if they were assisted by Sam and Tucker. And _especially_ if the bigger ghost orchestrating the attacks was starting to try harder at killing Makube by sending in smarter soldiers. After all, nothing was stopping it from just sending over an entire army while he was gone, and then _both_ cities would be under siege.

He was just one robot. What could he do? Atomu scoured his brain, trying to think of anyone, any robot capable of doing half of what he could. _I need someone here to defend Metro City. Someone who can take on bigger, smarter robots. Someone—_ the thought hit him and he smiled grimly. _I guess he'd do temporarily. He's a bit unpredictable, but…_ he watched as the rip slowly began to seal itself out of existence, the black space narrowing and then disappearing. _They really need help over there, don't they._

-Amity Park (where we last left them)-

Jazz stood frozen a while, looking at the hissing radio. Her body was still panicking, heart racing at unhealthy speeds, but what could she do? She gave a long, unsteady sigh as the radio static finally clicked off and was replaced by the _'Signal Not Found'_ screen. A wave of relief washed over her. _They're alive._ Though battling something. And she hadn't gotten to speak with Danny. And they were literally a dimension away. _But they're ALIVE._

The repetitive fire of ecto-guns finally stopped, and she heard her mother shouting from one of the defense turrets in the wall of the living room. "I think that's the last of that wave! Jack, go get Jazz, it's her turn to sleep!"

"I'm already down!" she called back, "and you won't believe who just radioed in!" she ran into the large room, where her parents were stepping out of the wall indents that housed the gun turrets.

"Wait, do you mean—" Maddie asked excitedly.

"Sam and Tucker!"

Jack whipped off his protective helmet. "Have they found Danny?" he demanded.

"Oh… yes." Jazz said awkwardly, "They did."

Maddie frowned. "What's wrong?"

Jazz quickly explained the nature of their situation, concluding it with "And that's the most I got out of them before the line went dead."

Maddie leaned back slowly, putting a hand to her forehead. "So— you didn't get to speak with Danny," said, her tone rather quiet.

"No… they weren't very descriptive, but it sounded like he was probably fighting something."

Maddie moaned.

"Com'n, sweetcakes," Jack reassured, putting a hand on her shoulder, "I'm sure that whatever it is, he can handle it. Danny's been fighting ghosts as long as we have, after all! I'm sure he'll get away without a scratch."

"I know that, I know that," Maddie said, waving his hand away, "But it's just— the ramifications— of these _tears!_ Another dimension! Of course, we'd already theorized such things existed, our research practically proved their existence. But the shear amount of _power_ it would take to rip your way into one! What exactly are we dealing with here that it could create so many? And _sustain_ them, no less?"

Jazz put a hand to her chin thoughtfully, glancing down and to the side. "About how much power, would you say?" she said looking up.

"Oh, at least eight or nine kilowatts," Jack said.

"More likely something in the megawatt range," Maddie added.

"So… we're obviously dealing with something that draws a pretty big amount of energy. Enough to cause blackouts in a powergrid. Something that would take pretty hefty a machine."

Maddie frowned. "Where are you going with this?"

"Maybe something like a ghost portal, but is so huge and heavy duty it seems like overkill at first glance."

Her parents looked at each other, a queer expression on their faces. "Mr. Burke," Maddie called, walking towards to the kitchen.

"What?" he asked drearily from is slouched position at the table, watching them walk in with a sort of reproachful detachment, "Is this about that portal I built again?"

Maddie sat down across from him like an interrogator, flanked by Jazz and her husband. "It's a dimensional portal, isn't it."

Mr. Burke paused, then leaned forward from his slouch to put his forearms lightly on the table. He clasped his fingers. "I'm not quite sure what you mean by that, Mrs. Fenton."

"You're an educated man, Mr. Burke. You should be able to infer," Maddie responded coldly.

"But you see, I am also a political man," He said smoothly, "And I want to know exactly what exactly you're trying to pin on me with that statement."


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24.

"Whoa, this place is huge," Tucker muttered.

It was indeed exactly as a he said— the Ministry storage area _was_ huge. In a vast area below the ground floor, it was basically one giant two-story high room spanning the circumference of the entire building and supported by a grid of massive pillars. These stood in line with the heavy steel shelving units, which were stocked with shipping boxes all the way to the distant ceiling. Extremely tall, dangerous looking forklifts roamed through the canyons of boxes, accompanied by swarms of clipboard holding men in florescent orange vests.

"These are just supplies, what we're looking for is in the way back," Atomu explained to Tucker, then in Japanese to the rest of the non Ministry-savvy people in the group. There were a great deal of them, as well, seeing how Tawashi and his swarm of policemen were still absentmindedly tagging along behind Makube. Makube did not look particularly pleased to be surrounded by policemen, or for that matter the situation in general.

"_Makube, do you have the number?_"

"_Ah— yes. ONYS-1206T,_" he said distractedly; reciting it without needing to look at the paper slip given to them by the main desk.

They started walking, Tucker, trailing along behind and gaping ceiling-ward. "Come on!" Atomu said earnestly, pulling him away as he nearly crashed into an orange-vested man, "Dawdle around here and you're going to get run over. Do you want to go back to the infirmary?"

Tucker turned a shade paler and stuck out his tongue. "No thanks. Sam can sleep there for all I care, but if I stayed there any longer I'd probably jump out the window yodeling or something."

"They're dating, right?"

Tucker paused and scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Yes… did Danny tell you? They're not exactly vocal about it."

"No, I just inferred."

Tucker's eyes lit up with a question. "Are you programmed to feel love?"

Atomu frowned, turning and walking backwards in front of him. "Geez, and I thought Danny was blunt! I measure you a cinder block to his brick."

"Sorry. It's kind of a classic question though…" he said, casting his eyes downward.

—Then back up again, optimistically eager. "But are you going to tell me anyways?"

Atomu rolled his eyes and went back to walking normally, still in front of him. "The simple answer is no. I do love many things, like this city, my family, the Ministry, the people in the Ministry. But based on context, I really doubt you're talking about that type of love."

"Huh. Well— I guess that makes sense. In hindsight would be kind of creepy of Ochanomizu had programmed romantic love into you. You _do_ kinda look like a ten-year-old."

"Tucker… Is 'awkward' the only type of conversation you specialize in?"

"Hey!"

"Besides, Ochanomizu wasn't even on the team who made me."

"Really?" Tucker asked incredulously, running up next to him. "Then who did your programming? Wait! No, scratch that. Who engineered you?" he said excitedly.

"Makube engineered my current design, though it was a largely superficial change from the old one."

"Then who are the people who did your old design and programming?" Tucker asked impatiently.

He paused for a second before answering that. "Both my programming and old design were done by one person."

Tucker's eyes went as wide as dollar coins. "What? Who?"

Atomu gave him a withering look. "Ask Danny. He'll tell you if he's so inclined."

"Whaaaaat? You've told _Danny_, but you won't tell _me?_" He complained.

"I had a reason to tell him. Besides, as charmingly blunt as you may be; the answers you want are getting uncomfortably personal."

Tucker sulked. "You know," he muttered, "It's much easier to just say 'mind your own business.'"

"Ah, but you see… I'm not blunt."

"AUAARUOORGHH," Tucker moaned, swatting apathetically at Atomu as the boy danced out of reach, grinning.

"You sound like a zombie with a hangover," he said critically, fighting the urge to laugh.

"Oy! Would you two stop fooling around? We found the right box!"

Atomu switched to business mode. "_Let's check the contents before we do anything!_" he said loudly, walking up, "_Clear off to the sides. I'm pulling it out._"

Though thankfully on the bottom shelf, the box itself was a rather sizable steel shipping container about the size of a couple of Hummers. Despite these seemingly hindering factors, Atomu made like a forklift and had the thing off in no time. Enlisting the help of a few of the police officers they undid the latches and took of the lid. Atomu clambered up to the top of the rim and wolf-whistled. "_It's what we want, for sure._"

Tucker came up hopefully, making puppy dog eyes; and Atomu groaned and pulled the athletically challenged boy up with him. Tucker peered over the edge, wobbling before he sat down. "Whoa, it looks like a giant mutant version of the Ghost Portal."

"That's a good sign, I trust," he muttered, hopping down into the interior and looking for a way to squeeze into the actual portal chamber, "_Ochanomizu! Call a lifter, will you? I'd enjoy not having to carry it all the way back, thanks._"

Ochanomizu scowled. "_Sure, why not! We'll just stand around and do nothing in the meantime, since you're so busy spelunking in the thing!_" he snapped.

"Ochanomizu seems kinda pissed, doesn't he?" Tucker said, watching him over his shoulder.

Atomu was squirming, attempting to work his way through a crack between the mouth of the machine and the metal wall, but he paused a moment to shrug and give an apathetic sigh. "Tenma's still here. As long Tenma's here, he's going to do pretty much nothing but sulk in random corners."

"Huh." Tucker scratched his nose. "So what work did Tenma do? He used to be a Ministry big shot, right?"

Atomu paused. "Oh, mainly management and press meetings. You know, big shot stuff. Despite his incredible genius for robotics he was rarely ever involved in official Ministry projects." He repositioned his legs and shoved the huge cylinder into the other side of the box, making a terrific noise.

"Jesus! Warn me before you do that!" Tucker laughed, nervously scrabbling to regain his balance while the sound faded to a creepily low ring.

"_Hey, don't break it!_" Makube's panicked voice called.

"Sorry!" Atomu called back, his voice echoing as he slipped through the widened crack into the machine.

Tucker leaned over to look, but the way of entry was far too small for him. "What's it like in there?"

"Dark," Atomu replied, flicking on his eye beams and noticing something in the far corner.

"Ah," Tucker said, looking around the warehouse. He spontaneously laughed. "You know, the box ghost would just have an absolute party in here!"

"The what?" Atomu asked, momentarily distracted.

"The box ghost. He controls boxes."

"That's… nothing if not odd," Atomu said, his footsteps clanking as he walked towards the other end.

"Yeah, but you know— they're his obsession. Ghosts tend to have an obsession with something from their human life."

Atomu stopped instantly. "…Danny told me that ghosts were never alive to begin with."

"Oh." Tucker said. "Well, it's true on some part… they only make up a small portion of ghosts, and they're more like an echo of consciousness that's been picked up by ectoplasm than an actual person. Danny probably said that because it makes him feel less dead."

"I see." There was silence inside the box for a while. "_Hey, Makube._"

Makube's head jerked up, and he snapped to attention like a trained dog. "_Yes?_"

"_Is this your toolbox?_"

His eyes practically lit up. "_Yes! Yes, it is! Can you get it for me?_"

Sure, Atomu replied, which was followed by some scraping within the box. Makube, moving like a man half his age, sprung up onto the edge next to Tucker with a slightly desperate expression. Atomu's hand stuck out, rattling a slim green box with black handles.

"_Thank you so very much,_" Makube said earnestly, quickly grabbing it and leaping down. Ochanomizu came walking back then, still looking crabby. "_They're coming any minute now, Atomu. Do you plan to get out of there anytime today?_"

"_Just a second,_" he called, walking back to pick up the small object that had been under the toolbox. It was a photograph, framed in velvet, a moment capture of a man and a woman standing together and smiling in what looked like a karaoke bar. The man was a younger Makube, the woman a realistic android with short black hair with bangs.

He brushed the dust off the edges and pocketed it.

—

English italicized, Japanese unitalicized.

A few minutes of massive transport elevators they were in another huge room, this one mainly intended for assembly. Tucker wouldn't have known, but it was the same place the robot from the first attack had been taken.

"Whatever did happen to that construction robot?" Atomu asked Ochanomizu, waving a hand in Tucker's face to get him to stop asking him questions.

Ochanomizu looked up with a start, glancing towards the policemen. "Let's not talk about that right now, he hissed, I'm not sure Tawashi is—"

"The Edition 4 construction robot?" Tawashi said, making Ochanomizu flinch. "He was released under the premise of a bug hack, which is—" he slapped Ochanomizu on the back, "—not entirely true, as I have learned. However, the actual cause seems to be nigh identical in effects, so I don't really care." He turned and wandered back to his cloud of police officers. They were all clustered near Makube, who was anxiously glancing at his briefcase every few seconds.

"So yes, that's what happened," Ochanomizu said, looking at the officer's retreating back with reprehension.

"_Atomu, what are you guys talking about?_" Tucker muttered, leaning down near the smaller boy's ear.

"_It's not your business._"

"_Oh, come on!_" he whined, "_I can't understand anything when you guys talk in that language!_"

Atomu ignored him and watched as the orange-vested people and a group of heavy lifting robots unbolted the walls of the container and towed them away, leaving the prototype portal standing free. Finally he said, "_Tucker, if you're so curious then ask Ochanomizu._" Ochanomizu didn't stand a chance— Tucker was on him the second the words left Atomu's mouth. Atomu walked off, mouthing an apology before leaving him to be drowned by questions.

Tenma stood unnecessarily close to the portal, the orange vested workers moving briskly around him as they worked to safely unfold the box, some sending him odd looks. Atomu wove his way towards him, muttering about how he was going to get crushed by machinery.

"Tenma," he said, stopping beside him and folding his arms. It was more of a statement than anything else.

"It's about Makube, isn't it?" Tenma asked, not turning his head. He had that look on his face again— not really smug, but more of a strange half smile. It was the expression of a man who was not easily taken by surprise.

"Of course it's about Makube. The way he acts and how you described his quitting of the initial project unsettles me. The current void of information doesn't help, either."

"Oh? A void?"

"I'm afraid not even our three visitors have a bloody clue what's going on, Tenma."

"We should all start a club," he said cheerfully.

Atomu darkened his stare. "Don't give me that, Tenma! It's obvious you know more than any of us!"

"I know more? Have you considered asking Makube?"

"Oh, yes! _That'd_ definitely be affective! Given he didn't have a_ heart attack_ before I finished the question!"

"I say you give it a try anyways."

"Who was the young lady you were threatening to talk about?" Atomu asked.

"Oh, a singer or entertainer or something. Rumor had it they were romantically involved and then had a falling out around the time he quit the project."

He thought about this for a second. "Were this 'falling out' and the cancellation of the project in anyway related?"

Tenma stroked his goatee. "Probably."

"Probably? You were directly implying it back at his house!"

"No, just as I said; that was speculation."

"Oh, of course it was", he moaned in exasperation, "And I guess Makube just happened to react like that?"

"I know little about the situation and merely inferred that detail. Is it really so hard to accept?"

"Yes!" Atomu exclaimed, "Because when something weird's happening, you almost always know more than us, and then keep the information for yourself until it benefits you most to spit it out!"

"Hmm, true. But there's nothing in particular I would gain from this."

"Has that ever stopped you?"

Tenma didn't respond.

"Tenma, _look at me_. I've been speaking to you for over a minute, and you've glanced my way maybe twice."

"Thank you, but I'd rather not relive another argument with Toby."

"I'm not Toby." Atomu responded slowly, narrowing his eyes and imperceptibly tensing the muscles in his arms.

"You certainly look like him, though."

"If that's your problem, I'm afraid there's not much I can do about it."

"You know, it's been harder on me since your upgrade," he said stiffly, "It was Makube, right? He did a fine job of converting you to a realistic android, even though I still suspect he was avenging that time he spent as my intern."

Atomu suddenly grabbed him and dragged him off the floor out into the hallway, ignoring the shocked stares he got from Tucker and the scientists, then softly latched the door behind him.

Tenma frowned, gingerly pulling his hand free from Atomu's hand. "And what are we doing now?" he asked, deadpan.

Atomu dropped the doorknob and turned. "You think it hasn't hard for me, either?" he shouted, and Tenma stepped back in surprise. "You're a brilliant man, and I respect you for that! But god, are you INSUFFERABLE! If you're going to complain about something, complain about something that isn't your OWN FAULT!"

He paused to exhale slowly, then started again in a slightly unsteady voice. "I've lost people before, Tenma. I know what it's like. I can understand why you did… what you did. But I can not forgive you for your _complete_ and _utter_ LACK OF RESPONSIBILITY for your own work! You knew fully well what you were doing, but you were so caught up in your own misery and resentment you didn't care! I was a child, Tenma! You abandoned me and then destroyed me! Do you think that wasn't painful? Because it was! It still is!"

There was silence.

"At least you're looking at me now. That's an improvement," he said dryly.

Tenma sighed and folded his arms across his chest, but the movement had no aggression. That element had been drained from him. "Do you have anything else to complain about?"

"Oh, sure! I could go on for hours about how you're an antisocial jerk who's intentionally vague to get people to leave you alone; but right now I'm more concerned about whether or not _anything_ I just said sunk in."

"I'm a jerk, true, but someone thirty years younger than me just gave a lecture on responsibility," he said grimly. "I can take a hint."

"Thank god!"

A soft clanking noise came from the end of the hall, and they both jumped and turned toward the source. The electrical robot saw them and froze in mid step. He was one of the lanky humanoid models, designed to squeeze into tight places to fix wires and recharge cut-off electronics. They had built in tool belts and electric generators in their torso, which connected to an extension cord they had wound tightly and clipped to their chest.

"…Can we help you?" It twitched at his voice, like the sudden sound had pricked him.

"Atomu," Tenma said carefully, "I didn't hear any of the scientists call for an electrical robot."

Atomu sighed. "Here we go again," he muttered.


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25.

"_Run inside and warn them, OK?_" Atomu said in a whisper, examining the surroundings. The door was in the middle of the long hallway, and the fighting space was narrow. This was going to be problematic. And ask Tucker if he can do anything to help.

"_The black boy? I was under the impression that he didn't speak Japanese,_" Tenma answered tensely. The possessed robot, which had been watching them warily, seemed to have gotten used to their whispering and was starting to advance with more confidence.

Atomu glanced at him in exasperation. "_You know, one of these days you need to zap English into your own head._"

"_Why on earth would I do that? I might end up in a coma._"

Atomu resisted the urge to bang his head on the nearest wall. "_GO WARN THEM. OCHANOMIZU WILL TRANSLATE. And meet me in my office at six, because apparently you NEED MORE LECTURING._"

"_Yes teacher,_" he said, tipping his hat cheerfully before bolting through the closed door like it was a turnstile. At the sound of the door slam, Atomu was off like a shot, slamming a hooked arm into the robot's stomach. It was caught off guard but reacted lightning fast, twisting in his grasp. Atomu suddenly felt a shock go under his chest plate.

"Aah!" The jolt loosened his grip just enough for the lanky robot to torque out of the hold. They both defensively leapt back, Atomu still standing in the way of its path to the door. The low hum of its electric generator and the faint smell of brunt metal gave away what it had done.

Atomu chuckled. "_You're pretty clever, aren't you?_" It had managed to get the prongs of the wound extension cord to make contact with the edge of his chest hatch. The robot looked between him and the door, as if unsure of what to do next. _It must be another try at assassination, like the previous three attacks Tawashi mentioned. It clearly didn't come here to fight._ That was a troubling thought. He was already in a dilemma— this was a high functioning robot, he didn't exactly want to destroy it just for being controlled by a ghost. But, even if fighting wasn't its original intent, he was certain the stubborn ghost would try to anyways— at the expense of the robot's body.

Also, he yet again had no Thermos, so he was stuck using low power.

The robot began to take a slow step forward, and Atomu charged. It freaked out, doing a frantic sidestep and narrowly missing the tackle, quickly whipping out a pair of wire strippers and several yards of cord as it did. With the machine-like efficiency characteristic of robots, it had stripped four feet of it or so down to bare wire before the other android could even turn around.

Atomu rolled out into a crouch facing the possessed bot and realized with a start that over a meter of bare, sparking wire was coming directly at him. Atomu sprang back just in time for the crude electric whip to only scorch the ground below him. Persistent, the robot continued to drive him back with swipes of the crackling live wire. It was now exactly where Atomu didn't want it, with nothing between it and the door.

_This is ridiculous, _he thought,_ I'm making this hard for myself. I can take a little high voltage shock to the skin._

The robot lashed at him one final time, trying to distract him while it lunged for the door.

"_I don't think so!_" Atomu yelled, the whip snapping against his palms with such force the stray end whizzed into a coil around his arm. The stinging pulse of energy radiated through him. He gave fierce holler and used the whip in reverse, ripping both it and the robot back before hurling them clear into the far wall. _Good. Now it's well away from the door._

Hands still crackling with ozone and splotches of static fading from his vision, he wasted no time sprinting straight at it with a small clenched fist at the ready. Once again, though, the robot saw him coming and barely dodged the punch to its chest, frantically dancing behind him before he could change directions.

It wasn't that Atomu was too slow— he was too heavy. The lighter robot could turn around on a dime. Also, the blank white hallway left little room for surprise or tactics.

_If I go much faster, my hits will probably kill the robot,_ Atomu thought._ That's out of the question, and wouldn't work anyways. These ghosts are stubborn, but they aren't going to stick around in a dead body._ He had been expecting it to bolt for the door just a ways behind it, but instead an uneasy standoff had commenced.

He pulled his fist from the drywall, and the already weakened material crumbled to the floor to expose the bare wood, insulation, and metal beneath.

_I can't really fight it in close combat,_ he mused, _It'll just shock me again. What can I do? _

…_I guess the cleanest option here is to take out its legs._

Atomu readied his stance, only to be taken by surprise as the robot darted behind him, grabbing his whip as it did. He turned just in time to see it smash through an exposed gas pipe with its bare hand, and with a white hot arc of electricity the air in the hallway became fire.

-Less than a minute ago-

The door to the hallway banged open and slammed close in quick succession, and Tenma ran briskly into the room. Ochanomizu and Tucker glanced up from the blueprint, which Makube had lifted from Tenma's briefcase.

"What's his problem _now?_" Ochanomizu muttered loudly, in English.

"_What's wrong?_" Makube asked as Tenma loped up, breathing heavily and brushing his dark forelock out of his eyes. He slapped a hand on the table and did an open-handed point at Makube. "_I advise you leave._"

"Hey," Tucker said, "Ask him what he was talking about with Ato—"

"_What's that supposed to mean, Tenma?_" Ochanomizu spat, "_We just got him here!_"

Tenma gave him a sarcastic glare. "_Tell me. Did anyone here call for an electrical repair robot?_"

Makube looked confused. "_Of course not! We've barely started to plan the modifications, much less—_" a roar of ferocity came from the hall, followed by the thunder clap of something hitting a plaster wall at incredible speeds. Makube's eyes widened with oncoming panic. "_Oh,_" he said, then fled to the group of policemen.

Ochanomizu jumped back from the table, quickly looking in the direction of the sound then back at Tenma. "_Dammit, Tenma! You could have just __told __us that!_" Tenma sighed. "_Yes, yes, Ochanomizu. I've already been criticiz—_" He was interrupted by the second smashing of the wall, this time by a smaller object. "Uh, what was that?" Tucker asked, brow wrinkling in worry. "_Now enlighten the American boy, will you? And ask him if he has any of those 'ghost' weapons._"

"Does anyone even care that I'm here?" Tucker moaned. Ochanomizu turned his attention to him with frightening speed. "It's another possessed robot. Do you have any capturing equipment on you?" Tucker's eyebrows shot up. "What? No! All I have is a radio!"

Then the end of the hall exploded.

- Now. -

Atomu blinked heavily against the flames roaring past him, the searing heat not really affecting him beyond making it harder to see. The walls, however, were demolished. The pipe had managed to blow in two places, one in the wall separating them from the high-ceilinged assembly room.

The robot lay on the other side. He wasn't moving, so Atomu quickly diverted his attention, dashing against the roaring hot wind and crushing the nearest open pipes closed. He messaged _'Shut off gas in section 1-BD,'_ to Ministry Control just as the sprinklers finally turned on and pelted the burning hallway with water.

Atomu heard a shaky mechanical whir, and saw the robot was already standing. "Rrgh!" he hissed, springing forward and having it just barely brush past his fingers as it turn began to sprint to Makube and the panicked looking group of policemen, whip in hand.

Atomu just smiled and thought, _Finally, an open space to fight._

A glow lit the scattered rubble as his rockets came to life, making the water on his boots sear off with a swirl of steam. "_I really didn't want to have to do this,_" he murmured, feeling the plates on his finger smoothly slide back and the weapon start to charge with a gathering blue glow. With a flash of intensity, his rockets fired off and he shot across the room in a fraction of a second, the movement vibrating the windows as he swerved and braked out hard directly in front of the robot's path. It was still in midstep when he made a slashing motion with his finger and swept the concentrated beam of energy straight through it.

The robot crashed to the floor in two, the clatter making the rest of the room flinch. Atomu had cleanly severed its legs just below the waist, rendering it effectively immobile.

Sorry about the explosion, he managed to sever a gas line, Atomu said hurriedly as he landed and pinned the scrambling robot with a foot, grabbing the line and binding its arms. "Tucker, we're going to need to hurry if we want to contain this ghost." He said, yanking the knot tighter as it squirmed beneath him. "It's going to realize any minute now it's in a helpless position and leave."

"What was _that?_" Tucker asked, "Was that a _laser?_ Where is it?"

Atomu sighed impatiently, taking the sparking bare end of the cord and deliberately holding up his pointer finger. The plates slid back with a click to reveal the bare laser barrel. He quickly sliced off the bare, sparking length of wire and melted the plastic around the end.

"OH MY GOD YOU HAVE A LASER IN YOUR FINGER."

"Yes."

"How does it work tell me tell me!"

"It's just a laser, I'm sure you can figure it out. I have to go up to the Speeder," he said, hoisting the struggling robot over his right shoulder, then calling to the rest of them in Japanese: "_I have to leave for the moment! Keep track of those legs, I want them reattached by the end of the day!_"

"But—" Tucker started.

"No, you can't come with me. I'm not exactly going to take to elevator."

"_But what do we do if there's another attack?_" Makube protested, finally regaining the ability to speak.

"_That's what the police are for. I'm sure you'll be fine,_" he yelled as turned and ran out, the robot over his shoulder attempting to bite his arm.

Makube didn't look so sure, but the boy was already gone.

Atomu sprinted out into the employee parking lot, the possessed robot clanging against his right shoulder and the ghost inside chittering angrily. He skidded to a halt facing the building, then crouched and aimed for the roof. He sprang and they shot up like a champagne cork, shooting about twenty stories up before firing his rockets.

A slithering sound came from his right just as he breeched the roof, and he glanced over in alarm. The ghost was already abandoning its host, the telltale green slime reaching out from between two neck plates. Atomu slapped a hand over it as he swooped up next to the Speeder, but the ghost wasn't having any of that. Without the slightest hesitation it phased through his fingers and swept away, forming the rough shape of a four legged animal, sort of like an amebic dog. Quickly it turned and wriggled frantically up and away, its body thinning and squiggling back and forth like an eel.

_I _thought _it was smarter—it certainly looks like a more advanced creature than the others!_ Atomu thought, cutting off his astonished gaze and hastily clambering past the previously "removed" doorframe of the Speeder and snatching a Thermos before blasting out after it on his rockets.

"_I don't know where you're headed,_" he muttered, uncapping the Thermos, "_But you're not getting away._" He pressed the fire button and the ghost was caught in the broad blast of light, screeching as it was sucked in by the tractor beam. Its form stretched, spiraling and then finally disappearing into the container. He slammed on the cap, letting the animal's cry abate into the open air and be replaced by the traffic and city noises rising faintly up from below.

He exhaled slowly and gradually loosened his grip on the Thermos, turning it over in his small hands.

It had definitely been a more complex organism than the last two. It had translucent but clear cellular organs beneath its skin, enough cognitive power to make a tool, and a preferred form. More troublingly, it matched the description of the similar ghosts Sam and Tucker had claimed were attacking their town, Amity Park.

He looked up, the steady breeze ruffling his hair, and noticed something odd in the distance. A black sliver floated about 10 meters away in the air, hanging just above the tops of the distant buildings like a printer glitch in the sky.

_Is that…?_ He drew closer, and saw that it was.

A dimensional tear.

His first time actually seeing one.

It was completely surreal: a slim, jagged hole with nothing beyond its impossibly sharp edges but infinite empty darkness. He was probably 6 or so meters from it, but he dare not get closer for fear it drawing him in like a ghost to a Thermos. Even at this distance he could feel the gentle current pulling at him, contradicting the wind.

But he couldn't help but look at it and feel a pang of obligation, like he should let it take him. Danny was in no position to help his family, and with the portal nearing completion he was bound to go despite the state of his health. Sam and Tucker had chosen to stay with him, and as flawed as that decision might be, it wasn't right to force them into a battlefield. They had mentioned a girl name Danielle, Danny's alleged clone, but chances of contacting her seemed positively grim.

But then again, if he went… who would protect Makube and the city? Past experience had left him with little faith in the police, even if they were assisted by Sam and Tucker. And _especially_ if the bigger ghost orchestrating the attacks was starting to try harder at killing Makube by sending in smarter soldiers. After all, nothing was stopping it from just sending over an entire army while he was gone, and then _both_ cities would be under siege.

He was just one robot. What could he do? Atomu scoured his brain, trying to think of anyone, any robot capable of doing half of what he could. _I need someone here to defend Metro City. Someone who can take on bigger, smarter robots. Someone—_ the thought hit him and he smiled grimly. _I guess he'd do temporarily. He's a bit unpredictable, but…_ he watched as the rip slowly began to seal itself out of existence, the black space narrowing and then disappearing. _They really need help over there, don't they._

-Amity Park (where we last left them)-

Jazz stood frozen a while, looking at the hissing radio. Her body was still panicking, heart racing at unhealthy speeds, but what could she do? She gave a long, unsteady sigh as the radio static finally clicked off and was replaced by the _'Signal Not Found'_ screen. A wave of relief washed over her. _They're alive._ Though battling something. And she hadn't gotten to speak with Danny. And they were literally a dimension away. _But they're ALIVE._

The repetitive fire of ecto-guns finally stopped, and she heard her mother shouting from one of the defense turrets in the wall of the living room. "I think that's the last of that wave! Jack, go get Jazz, it's her turn to sleep!"

"I'm already down!" she called back, "and you won't believe who just radioed in!" she ran into the large room, where her parents were stepping out of the wall indents that housed the gun turrets.

"Wait, do you mean—" Maddie asked excitedly.

"Sam and Tucker!"

Jack whipped off his protective helmet. "Have they found Danny?" he demanded.

"Oh… yes." Jazz said awkwardly, "They did."

Maddie frowned. "What's wrong?"

Jazz quickly explained the nature of their situation, concluding it with "And that's the most I got out of them before the line went dead."

Maddie leaned back slowly, putting a hand to her forehead. "So— you didn't get to speak with Danny," said, her tone rather quiet.

"No… they weren't very descriptive, but it sounded like he was probably fighting something."

Maddie moaned.

"Com'n, sweetcakes," Jack reassured, putting a hand on her shoulder, "I'm sure that whatever it is, he can handle it. Danny's been fighting ghosts as long as we have, after all! I'm sure he'll get away without a scratch."

"I know that, I know that," Maddie said, waving his hand away, "But it's just— the ramifications— of these _tears!_ Another dimension! Of course, we'd already theorized such things existed, our research practically proved their existence. But the shear amount of _power_ it would take to rip your way into one! What exactly are we dealing with here that it could create so many? And _sustain_ them, no less?"

Jazz put a hand to her chin thoughtfully, glancing down and to the side. "About how much power, would you say?" she said looking up.

"Oh, at least eight or nine kilowatts," Jack said.

"More likely something in the megawatt range," Maddie added.

"So… we're obviously dealing with something that draws a pretty big amount of energy. Enough to cause blackouts in a powergrid. Something that would take pretty hefty a machine."

Maddie frowned. "Where are you going with this?"

"Maybe something like a ghost portal, but is so huge and heavy duty it seems like overkill at first glance."

Her parents looked at each other, a queer expression on their faces. "Mr. Burke," Maddie called, walking towards to the kitchen.

"What?" he asked drearily from is slouched position at the table, watching them walk in with a sort of reproachful detachment, "Is this about that portal I built again?"

Maddie sat down across from him like an interrogator, flanked by Jazz and her husband. "It's a dimensional portal, isn't it."

Mr. Burke paused, then leaned forward from his slouch to put his forearms lightly on the table. He clasped his fingers. "I'm not quite sure what you mean by that, Mrs. Fenton."

"You're an educated man, Mr. Burke. You should be able to infer," Maddie responded coldly.

"But you see, I am also a political man," He said smoothly, "And I want to know exactly what exactly you're trying to pin on me with that statement."


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26.

All dialogue in Japanese.

The assembly hall was dark, save for a few electric lamp-lit sections. Makube sat alone in one of these pools of light, voices of the few other scientists floating faintly from their work places. He stared aimlessly at the blueprints under the orangey glow, fiddling with an unused pair of needle-nose pliers.

He was too absorbed to hear the door open in the background, or the sound of small footsteps approaching him. His head jerked up in alarm as they stopped right next to him.

It was Atomu, wearing jeans and a loose wind jacket. His hands were buried in the pockets. "Good evening, Makube! How goes the project?" he said warmly.

Makube blinked in confusion, then tossed the pliers back into the toolbox dejectedly. "You mean the portal? It's fine, basically fit to use now. They're going to run a bunch of tests on it tomorrow anyways."

"Ah, that's good. And so are tests, you know. I'd rather not be ripped apart by dimensional forces."

"You plan to go through?" Makube asked, surprised.

Atomu sighed, bouncing on the balls of his feet. "I've assessed the situation— it's probably the best arrangement."

"But… then…" Makube started, panicked, "other than the police, there wouldn't be anyone to fight off the gho—"

"It's all been worked out, don't worry. Danny's friends will be working with a friend of mine."

"Oh. Sorry," Makube said tersely. "I just really don't want you or anyone getting hurt protecting me. I don't really deserve it." He clasped his hands. "You know… I've been thinking, too. They're only trying to kill me… maybe we should just let them."

Atomu looked at him in disbelief. "I do hope you're kidding."

"Well, I don't really want to, but it would—"

"Makube. No one is going to die. No one. I _refuse_ to let anyone come out of this dead, and that includes you."

The conversation fell into an awkward silence, and Atomu broke it with a sigh.

"Makube, I'm not going to lie. I'm here to gather information."

Makube's eyes flickered up.

"I wish I could get more out of Tenma, but it's always so insanely hard to get him to say anything, you know?" he continued, "And then, when he actually doesn't know anything, you can't tell. It's so frustrating. That man is such a headache."

"I'm aware." Makube said acidly, "Now what do you want from me?"

Atomu cast his eyes down to the side for a second, face falling. "Ah… first of all, I'm sorry for taking this. It was wrong of me," he said, pulling a little picture frame out of his jacket pocket and placing it on the desk. Makube's eyes widened and he snatched it away, yelping "You!" then stopping, like he was unsure what to accuse him of.

"…What do you want," he finally spat.

"What happened on the day you decided to stop the initial project?"

"I gave up searching for her."

"Searching for her? Did she—"

"She fell through the prototype portal. The same day she gave me this." He waved a hand at the toolbox.

"Why did you give up? It seems like you really loved her."

"I didn't _love_ her," he responded forcefully.

Atomu watched him quietly.

"What was her name?"

"Yua Hibiki," he said curtly.

"Hmm," he said, and the silence resumed. "Well, don't stay out here too long, okay? It would really ease my mind to have you somewhere more easily protectable, and you'll need sleep for the tests tomorrow." He started walking, then paused and turned. "Oh, and… I think you should try opening the picture frame. I didn't read it, but she left you a note."

Makube stared at Atomu wide-eyed as the boy started back towards the hall, then began to furiously fumble with the latches on the back of the frame. He read the note as Atomu's footsteps faded into the background.

Atomu exited the assembly hall and walked the distance down the hallway to the elevator, but paused, hand hovering over the up arrow button.

Fifty or so meters behind and to the left of him, from beyond one or two walls, he could hear Makube's choked breathing.

He rubbed his temple. Whatever that little piece of paper had on it was potent… should he go back? It was true he hadn't gained any useable, confirmed information at all, but that didn't matter too much— He didn't want to upset the poor guy any further. But neither did he want Makube to stew in sadness or guilt or whatever emotion he was feeling until he decided to do something really stupid. Like take his own life. He couldn't let something like that happen.

Atomu turned, retracing his whole long path back into the assembly hall till he found himself where he started: standing next Makube. The man's face was in his hands, and a small piece of crumpled line paper lay in front of him. His shoulders were shaking.

Atomu picked up the little paper, carefully flattening and folding it without looking at the written side. Makube watched him through his fingers, his face wet and his eyes red. Atomu placed the note back in the frame and redid the latches, standing it up in front of Makube.

"Go away!" he snarled, smacking the picture down and sending it skittering halfway across the blueprint. "What more do you need to fucking ask me about? I'm not exactly in the mood to be _interrogated!_"

"So her name was Yua. And she was a singer, right?"

Makube wiped his face roughly with a sleeve and clenched his hands defensively at his sides. "Yes. A robot commissioned by the Golden Sound Record Company from the Miyamoto Robotics Institute. Hailed as a breakthrough in synthetic vocal systems. I met her at some of the press meetings," he croaked angrily.

"And you two became friends?"

"Look, could just fucking _lea—_"

"What did she like to sing?"

Makube frowned, caught off guard. "She… liked old English and Japanese ballads. Like Scarborough Fair and that old folk song about cherry blossoms. You know, the one that goes _Sakura, Sukura, yayoi no sora wa…_" he shook his head. "I'm a crap singer. But you know, more of the singy type things than pop music."

"Really? No pop music?"

"Well… her company made her sing pop songs more often, they drew a bigger crowd."

"Did she sing at that event?" Atomu asked, pointing to the fallen picture, "It looks like a karaoke setup on the stage."

He glanced between Atomu and the photo. "Uggghh. What the hell are you asking these questions for? Leave." he moaned, rubbing his eyes with the palms of his hands and turning away.

"I'm interrogating you, of course. Now, what was this karaoke event and did she sing at it?"

Makube watched him suspiciously, his eyes tired and bloodshot. "It was a big TV event back then, _'Karaoke with the Stars,'_" he answered. "She was one of the contestants."

"Did she do well?" Atomu asked.

"She was runner up to first place."

Atomu rolled his eyes. "Oh, come on, that's not what I meant! Do _YOU_ think she did well?"

Makube paused. "She sang like an angel."

Atomu reached over and stood the picture back up, smiling. "She certainly looked the part, too."

Makube's ears turned red to match his eyes.

"Was green her favorite color?" Atomu asked.

Makube looked up, confused. "Why?"

"Her dress, of course."

"Oh," he said, looking at the photo. "Yeah, it was one of her favorites. That with white and blue."

"It's a pretty nice dress. Do you know where she got it?"

"Uh… Actually," Makube said haltingly, fiddling with his hands and looking away, "I got it. For her."

"Really?"

"No, no! It's nothing! It was— the day of the event— her birthday was on the day of the event. So I figured I might as well get her something nice to wear for th—"

"Did she like it?"

"…Yeah."

He fell silent. Atomu watched as he took the picture frame and tilted it side to side, looking at the reflections.

"You loved her, didn't you."

"No, I didn't."

"You're really trying to lie to _me_."

"I didn't!"

"Did she love you back?"

Makube rubbed his temple. After a few seconds he sighed and said "I didn't know, until you told me about that note."

"What did it say?"

He drummed his fingers slowly against the desk. "Something I wish I'd read ten years ago," he murmured.

Atomu smiled sadly. "How long was it from the event to her disappearance?"

"Two days," he replied brokenly.

"Tell me what happened," Atomu said quietly.


End file.
